Naruto of the Uchiha Clan
by Lone Kyuubi
Summary: A seven year old Sasuke lets Naruto live with his family. What adventures will become of this? rated T for swearing. The final part of the Academy Escapades is up! [Pairing voting ends May 1st]
1. A New Best Friend

My first fanfic…and, well, enjoy! Plz r&r.

I always wanted to re-write the Naruto series, don't know why I just wanted to 'k?

A/n: characters will be massively A/U

Chapter 1: A new, best friend

This is the tale of a certain boy by the name of Uzamaki Naruto. He had blonde hair and bright blue eyes. On both sides of his face were three lines that resembled whiskers. He wore a white shirt and black pants; however, there were large amounts of leaves, dirt, grass stains on both items of clothing. In fact, the boy could have resembled a very dirty bush or something that had been dragged across three fields. This unfortunately, was true for the boy.

He had just endured a whole hour of getting tied up and then dragged across Konoha by three large boys. During the final minutes of his torture, one of the ropes had come loose and tied itself around the boy's neck. The rope tightened every second, the boy could barely breathe. He began to loose all feeling in his limbs and darkness began to obscure the boy's vision.

"This is it, I'm gonna die." The boy thought. "At least I led a full life…"

_It's not supposed to end like this!_

Instantly, the boys had stopped dragging the boy and looked at him. "What the hell was that?" one had asked.

"I don't know, but I'm scared." The youngest of the boys squeaked.

"That demon kid can't have said that, the voice was too deep, too hateful…" the eldest then picked up his rope and almost began pulling again when the middle spoke up.

"Oh god! What if we awakened the demon? He'll kill us all!" He then turned around and ran. Unbeknownst to him his foot had wrapped around his own rope and began pulling on the rope around Naruto's neck. The tension caused the running boy to trip and he then tried to crawl away from the demon child and, at the same time, tightened the rope again.

_NNNNOOOOO!_

The three boys looked back at Naruto only to see a ball of swirling orange charka. The charka dispersed and the demon child's nails and teeth had grown and were sharper. The three boys stared in horror as the transformed child began clawing and biting away at the ropes that bound him. What shocked the boys more was that the boy even clawed at his own skin to get the ropes off. Once the ropes were off, the boy stood up slowly with his eyes closed. He was covered in blood and large gashes covered his skin. He then turned his head towards the boys and opened his eyes. What the boys saw was enough to make them wet themselves. The young boy's eyes had changed from blue to a deep red with slits as pupils. He then began growling and slowly advanced on the boys. Their legs having failed them, the youngest of the three boys did the only thing that seemed rational at the time… he screamed.

The scream was then cut short as several kunai landed at the boys' and Naruto's feet. Naruto instantly changed back to his original form as a young boy the same age as Naruto with black eyes jumped from the trees and landed on his feet. He looked around at the three boys (the smell of urine was somehow present) and then he looked to Naruto. The first thing he noticed was the numerous cuts across the blonde boy's body and the kunai at his feet.

"Kuso!" The boy yelled and ran to Naruto, "I'm sorry! I heard a scream and I threw my kunai at where the scream came from by mistake and-"

The boy then noticed that the cuts on the blonde were too large and too many to have been caused by his accidental throws. He stared at the blonde boy's cuts and then at the three older boys. "What the hell did you do to this kid?" he screamed at the boys.

"We didn't do anything!" the boy then glared at them, "Okay, so we might have dragged him behind us for an hour bu-"

The young boy then snapped. No wonder he was so scratched up. "You'll pay for this you bastards!" the boy yelled, "Now, feel the wrath of the Uchiha clan!" Both his eyes then changed from black to red; one eye was completely clear but the other had what looked like a comma mark around the pupil. The boys then wet themselves again not because of what happened to the younger boy's eyes but because they had heard of the famous Uchiha clan and what kind of fighters they were. They were not as afraid as they were when they faced Naruto and were able to pick themselves up and run away.

"Heh, they couldn't even hold out against me, Uchiha Sasuke, the strongest of the Uchiha clan!" Sasuke then struck what looked like the nice-guy pose to no one in particular (in his mind he was facing a camera).

Naruto sweat dropped and stared at the Uchiha boy. "…um I guess you saved me so, um, thank you."

Sasuke then stared at Naruto and said "No need for thanks fellow civilian, we people of Konoha need to look out for each other. By the way what's your name?"

"Uzamaki Naruto. And I'm guessing that you're-"

Naruto then fell to the ground and curled into a ball.

"Naruto! What's happening to you?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto then let out a groan as a small hissing sound could be heard. Sasuke looked at Naruto in disbelief. The cuts that covered Naruto's body were suddenly disappearing. A minute later, Naruto stood up and looked at his arms and legs. The skin was completely healed and no scars were present.

"Wow." Sasuke said in disbelief, "Do have a bloodline limit or something?"

"What's a bloodline limit?"

"It's like a special power that only members of your family can use."

Naruto then became silent "I don't have a family." He whispered.

"If you don't have a family, then where do you live?"

"I don't really live anywhere, I just find a spot to sleep and that's about it."

Sasuke then brightened up, "Well that won't do for a civilian with a bloodline limit like yours!" he then grabbed Naruto's wrist and began running while Naruto stumbled trying to keep his balance.

"Where are we going?" Naruto asked.

"We're going to my part of the town. You can live with my family, I'm sure they won't mind."

Naruto looked up in shock. No one had ever been so nice to him, let alone even consider helping him out of trouble. He was always treated with the most hatred because of something that he had no control over. Naruto asked others why he was hated but they just responded with a snide comment or threw something at him. Naruto then had tears running down his face as Sasuke pulled him along. Throughout the trip all Naruto said was "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.", over and over again.

Within minutes, the two boys reached an archway decorated with red and white fans, Naruto believed that these were the Uchiha clan symbols. As they passed under the arch, two guards stared at Naruto awkwardly but dismissed their feelings when that saw that Sasuke was the one leading the blonde boy into the town. Naruto almost did a double-take when he saw what was in the town. Everyone there had either black or brown hair and each had the same coal colored eyes as Sasuke. The red and white fans were hung as banners over each house and store. Sasuke then turned a corner and headed towards a house that was directly in front of a small lake. Sasuke led Naruto to the front door and took off his sandals. Naruto quickly followed suit.

"Otou-san! (dad) Okaa-san! (mom) Itachi-onii-san! (brother)" A woman who was drying a plate looked to see Sasuke and smiled (obviously, she was Sasuke's mom, Mikoto).

"Sasuke! I'm glad you're back from practice, dinner will be ready in a few minutes." she noticed Naruto and dropped the plate. "S-Sasuke-kun! What is HE doing here?"

"This is my new friend Okaa-san, Uzamaki Naruto. He has a really cool bloodline limit that makes him heal really fast. I saved him from some bullies and now I brought him here to live with us." Sasuke looked like he had just saved the human race from a plague the way he smiled.

"Sasuke-kun can I see you in the next room, _alone?_" she basically pulled Sasuke into an empty room by the ear and then closed the door.

"This doesn't look good." Thought Naruto, he could hear Sasuke's mom yelling at him.

Then Naruto turned around and nearly bumped into a large man with the same Uchiha eyes and black hair. Naruto could only assume that this was Sasuke's dad.

"Gomen, Uchiha-sama!" Naruto yelled a little louder than necessary.

"Well, well, well, what have we here? Another friend of Sasuke I presume?" said Fugaku. (that's actually his name, I thinks it's funny)

"Hai! We met today and Sasuke invited me over, Uchiha-sama"

The man then knelt down and looked Naruto in the eyes he noticed the whisker marks and said "I take it that you are Uzamaki Naruto, correct?"

"Hai."

"Hmm. Tell me, what do people do when they see you?" Naruto's eyes widened in fear of the memories that flashed through his mind, though his gaze never left the eyes of Sasuke's dad.

"T-they try to hurt me… they think that I did something terrible to their families and they blame me for things that I never did or aren't even capable of."

Concern flashed by Fugaku's eyes and he sighed "And have you ever gotten angry at them? Have you ever wanted to hurt the people who hurt you?"

"Never! I could never harm another human being from Konoha or any other village. I know that I should be mad, but when I look at them all I see is a person who lost something very important to them and they have no proper way of expressing themselves. For some reason they take it out on me. But I know that deep down they realize that I may not be the so-called demon child that they think I am. I'm just another person who was born here and I have the same needs as they do. Someday they'll realize that and then they can finally respect me."

"Well, that's pretty deep thinking for a seven year old."

"Um… some of it was told to me by the Hokage, Uchiha-sama."

"Ah, yes. The Hokage has told me quite a bit about you and your thirst for acceptance."

Mikoto then opened the door she was behind and pulled Sasuke out of the room. "Sasuke, I think you know what to say to our… guest."

"But, Okaa-san he needs a home! If he's out there people will try to hurt him again or worse!"

"Whoa there, Sasuke. What's this all about?" asked Sasuke's dad.

"Otou-san! Okaa-san thinks that Naruto shouldn't stay with us because he is dangerous! I think that the people out there are more of danger to him than he ever will be to them or us."

A moment of silence followed and then…

"I guess you're right, Sasuke. It is too dangerous for Naruto to be out there alone." He turned to look down at Naruto, "How would you like it if you stayed here?"

"R-really? I'd love to, Uchiha-sama!"

"Please, call me Otou-san."

Sasuke walked up to Naruto and said "See, I told you it would be okay with them." But Naruto wasn't listening; he was looking at the ground and visibly crying.

"Otou-san, arigatou! I am forever in your service! Should a job be needed to be done I'll be there. If you need a package to be delivered all the way to Snow country, I'll be there." He raised he head, "If someone threatens my new family they'll be sorry that they ever crossed Uzamaki Naruto. I will defend this clan with my life for you have shown me kindness!"

Sasuke's dad let out a laugh "Naruto relax we're inviting you into our home, not making you a slave or anything like that.

Naruto looked up and smiled "Gomen, Otou-san. I guess I got carried away a bit."

"Indeed." Sasuke's dad said as he stood up. "Sasuke, since dinner's almost ready, would you go and get your brother?"

"Hai. C'mon Naruto, I'll introduce you to Itachi-nii-san."

Naruto followed Sasuke down a hallway to a door that said DO NOT DISTURB. Sasuke ignored the sign and walked into the room. Naruto felt like he had stepped into a cave. The room was pitch black and had no windows. Suddenly a young teen(thirteen to be exact) stepped from the shadows. He wore a black cloak with red clouds in various places. His hair was spiked at the back of his head and he had an I-don't-give-a-damn-about-you-or-myself attitude around him. "Why have you stepped into my inner sanctum?" he asked.

Naruto was confused and a little freaked out. Sasuke simply said "Otou-san said that dinner's almost ready so you'd better come soon."

Itachi looked at his younger brother and gave a very faint smile. "Sasuke, how did your practice go today?"

"Well… I almost killed a few people, bu-"

"A _few_ people? As in more than one? Well, I'm impressed Sasuke, you almost ridded this corrupted world of more useless souls. They probably would have grown up and got jobs that would kill this planet more than it is already…" Itachi then went on to ramble more emo/gave-up-on-the-world stuff.

"They're still alive you know, I said I almost killed them." Sasuke said.

Naruto whispered to Sasuke "Is he always like this?"

"Yeah, Otou-san says it's because of that group Akatsuki that he joined a month back. But, he's a genius ninja so saving lives comes before end of the world stuff."

Itachi almost lectured Sasuke about interrupting him when he noticed Naruto standing at the doorway. "The Child!" he bowed to Naruto "Kitsune child, I have waited for this day to finally meet you! I am honoured!"

Naruto looked to Sasuke but he just shrugged. Naruto then slowly patted Itachi on the head. "(gasp!) The fox has blessed me with his touch! Oh, great destroyer! It would be an honour if you joined my group and became our leader. Wait, I think I have an extra cloak somewhere around here." Itachi then got up and started looking through the clothes that littered his floor while muttering things like: "Oh what a glorious day!" and "The world will finally fear us!"

Sasuke turned his head away and started to giggle uncontrollably. Itachi then held up a black cloak exactly like his own towards Naruto "It would be Akatsuki's greatest moment if you accept this." He then bowed again.

Naruto hesitantly took the cloak from Itachi "Um… I'll think about it, okay?"

"I understand if we are not evil enough for you great kitsune. But please consider the offer carefully." Itachi then bowed down till his back was completely parallel to the ground and shuffled back into his shadows.

"Your brother's weird, Sasuke." Naruto said, but Sasuke as still laughing his ass off.

"Children come for dinner now!" Mikoto yelled

Sasuke slowly got up and said "Coming "

Naruto quickly followed Sasuke to the dining room and stared in awe at the food on the table. There were large trays of fish, vegetables and pork. But what really got his attention was the largest bowl of ramen he had ever seen. The bowl was about half the height of him and it almost filled three fourths of the table.

"I noticed that you're staring at the ramen, Naruto." Naruto snapped out of his daze and looked at Fugaku. "We Uchihas are world famous for our secret ramen recipes. My wife won the ramen cook-off seven months ago with a unique blend of-"

"Dear, I don't think it would be wise if we just gave away our recipes now would it?" Mikoto said as she scowled at Naruto.

"I guess not… Anyway, Naruto, sit down, have a bowl and tell us what you think."

Naruto sat down as Sasuke passed Naruto a bowl or ramen. Slowly, Naruto took a spoonful of the soup and almost drank it when Itachi entered the room "ALOHA FAMILY!"

Naruto inhaled the soup in shock, fell to the floor and began choking. "Oh my god, Itachi, you killed him!" Sasuke screamed as he started punching Naruto in the back in hopes of saving him. "Live, Naruto! Cough it up and live, dammit!"

Itachi simply pushed Sasuke way and punched Naruto in the stomach (A/N I don't know if this actually works on a choking person so don't try at home) . This effectively winded him but then again it saved his life. Naruto then got up on his knees, "Thanks, Itachi, I thought- what the hell?"

Naruto looked at Itachi but this wasn't the same Itachi who was in the dark room. Instead, this Itachi was wearing what looked like a Hawaiian t-shirt with khakis. He was wearing sunglasses on his forehead and his ninja headband was wrapped around his left arm. His face didn't look so emo anymore in fact, he looked like the happiest person on earth.

"Are you… Itachi or another brother?"

"Naruto I'm offended, you leave my room for five minutes and already you forget me. By the way, did you try mom's ramen yet?"

"He was about to, until you made him choke on it." Sasuke said.

Instantly, Itachi's face grew cold and a sad/mad/depressed look crossed his face. It even seemed that the room grew darker.

"Well, _sorry_ for trying to exist, Sasuke. Can't a guy just try to be himself before he dies? Oh, wait, it's pointless to be myself because in about sixty years I'll be dead! There'll be nothing left of me after I decompose so why try!"

"Itachi, dear," Mikoto said "If you don't sit down right now you won't get any dinner and you're grounded."

Itachi changed back into his happy persona and quickly took a seat. Naruto then got back into his chair and a new bowl of ramen was placed before him.

"If there are no further interruptions, Naruto will now tell us what he thinks about Mikoto's ramen." Fugaku said.

Naruto nodded, took another spoonful of the ramen (this time looking around incase of anymore scares) and softly slurped it.

There were no words to describe the taste! Naruto was in heaven, bouncing up and down on soft clouds of noodles. Large bowls of ramen of every flavour suddenly appeared. They had angel wings and small halos. They flew circles around Naruto until he became dizzy and fell on the floor. Suddenly the flying ramen bowls flew above Naruto and started to pour themselves into Naruto's mouth. He gulped down every last drop and more flying bowls appeared and they also let Naruto eat them.

"THIS IS THE BEST FOOD I'VE EVER HAD!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

_Back in the real world…_

"You think he's okay?" Sasuke asked looking down at Naruto who was placed on a couch.

"I'm sure he's fine… at least I hope so." Sasuke's dad said.

"That is so totally awesome! It's like he's in a ramen induced coma or something" Itachi said.

The floor of the once spotless house was now littered with countless bowls and small bits of noodles. Naruto was placed on a couch in the living room and for the past hour he was twitching uncontrollably, a small amount of drool dripped from his mouth.

"I don't think I've ever heard of anyone eat so much, he could give that Chouji boy a run for his money." Mikoto said, and for once sounding impressed with Naruto.

"He's definitely going to sign up for the eating contest, first prize this year is two million ryou." Itachi said, "Imagine how much more ramen this kid could buy!"

"RAMEN!"

The Uchiha family jumped as Naruto bolted upright with a manic look in his eyes.

"Relax, Naruto!" Sasuke said, "You've just been through a traumatic exper-"

"Traumatic? I'm not sure about that but I felt like I went to heaven and back." Naruto noticed Mikoto, fell off the couch and bowed at her feet. "Okaa-san, please, I must have more ramen! That one bowl wasn't enough! It was sooooo good I just gotta get more!"

"First of all, demon, don't call me your mother. Second, you ate a whole month's supply of ramen in under ten minutes, any more and you'll burst! And third, I ran out of supplies to make more ramen so I need to get some more ingredients."

Naruto then became sad that there was no more ramen but then realized his big mistake. He hadn't even been in the Uchiha's house for a day and already he ate most of their food and left the house in a complete mess.

"ARRG!" he screamed, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll get this cleaned up right away!"

Before anyone could react, Naruto had picked up every single bowl and brought them to the kitchen. He cleaned them all in record time (all the while he had only broken two bowls) and stacked them nicely in piles on the table.

As Naruto ran back into the living room, Fugaku grabbed Naruto's shoulders and held him in place. "Naruto, don't worry about it. We'll clean up while Sasuke shows you your room."

"Are you sure, Otou-san? I mean, I can clean this up in no time and-"

Sasuke grabbed Naruto's arm and began dragging him away. "C'mon Naruto, if the adults say it's ok then it's ok, right?"

"I guess you're right."

"Good. Now, you have a choice of one of our three guest bedrooms." Sasuke then showed each room to Naruto and Naruto chose the one closest to Itachi's room.

Back in the living room

"He's a good kid that Naruto." Fugaku said.

"I still think that it's a bad idea to let that demon child in our house. He could turn on us at any minute and kill us all."

"Mikoto, if we left him out there for the villagers to deal with he eventually would turn on the village and kill someone. Because we are showing him compassion by letting him live with us, it would hopefully erase any anger he may hold against Konoha and therefore make him safe for other to be around. I'm not just doing this for him but for Konoha as well."

"You job has really effected you hasn't it?" Mikoto asked.

"Being captain of the police force has very little to do with this. I just want to make sure that everyone is happy and besides this isn't how Arashi wanted Naruto to be treated."

"Don't talk about the Fourth like you knew him."

"I did know him. We were on the same team together and we were best friends."

"Ok, so you knew him. Let's just drop this, it's not like we're adopting him or something."

"Well, now that you mention it…."

TBC

A/N: Well, there's the first chapter. As some might have guessed this story line will be very long since it begins when Naruto are Sasuke are seven. I'll try to skip a year now and then but I do have a plot for this story…I just haven't exactly thought of one…yet. lol

Next chapters will be better than this one I promise.


	2. Flaming Sasuke no Jutsu

I wrote a bit more to this chapter and reposted it (just small changes , see how many you can notice!)

Flaming Sasuke no Jutsu

_Last time:_

"_Let's just drop this okay? It's not like we're adopting him."_

"_Well, now that you mention it…"_

The next day…

Hoshi street (three blocks from Hokage tower)…

Fugaku Uchiha continued on his path to the Hokage tower with his wife, Mikoto, close behind.

"Fugaku, please, don't do this! If you adopt him he'll be a disgrace to the Uchiha clan and my family will suffer the most."

Fugaku turned around to his wife "First of all, it's my family to and Naruto is going to be a part of it! I also plan on letting him keep his last name (Mikoto breathed a sigh of relief) because he will be overjoyed when we will be allowed to tell him who his father was."

"B-but Fugak-"

Fugaku then pulled her into an alley and pinned her against a wall. "What if it was Sasuke? I want you to know that Arashi was pretty damn close to choosing him if he couldn't do it to his son."

"He was going to use Sasuke?" Mikoto whispered.

"Yes. But he knew that he couldn't give the burden to anyone else so he chose his own son. He thought that Naruto would have been treated as a hero. But if you look into the boy's eyes you'll see a pain that no child should ever have experienced. Last night the boy was plagued with nightmares of the village people throwing what ever they could at him. There was even a report two years ago that he was beaten within an inch of his life. Now, I will ask again, what if it was Sasuke?"

Mikoto stayed quiet, tears forming in her eyes. "I would try to protect him from the others. I would have made sure that he got the respect that he deserved for carrying that Kyuubi inside him."

"Exactly, that is how a mother should feel for her child. Naruto will be our child from now on so I want you to treat him as such. And, I suggest that _you_ look into his eyes one day and maybe ask him about his miserable life."

He then let go of his wife and carried on towards the Tower. Mikoto then walked slowly back to her house. _"Maybe I will talk to him. He seems like a nice kid. I just hope I don't regret this."_

Back at the Uchiha house

"C'mon eat faster Naruto!" Sasuke yelled, obviously exited "You'll need all your power for today!"

"Why? What's the rush?" Naruto said, still groggy from his sleep.

"Itachi's gonna teach us a fire jutsu." Sasuke then jumped up and down excitedly.

"Don't we have to be in school to learn that?"

"No, most students there learn a bit before they go to school, it helps a bit, ya know?"

"So what's Itachi gonna teach us?"

Slowly the door to the dining room slid open and Itachi (dressed in full Akatsuki uniform) stepped in. Oddly enough, the sun was covered behind some clouds at the same time and the power flickered.

"I will teach you a very basic fire jutsu. It isthe weakest and most basic of the fire element jutsusbut enough to torch your enemies and allows them to die slowly, painfully, sooo slowly..." He chuckled as he imagined a person on fire slowly dying.

Naruto and Sasuke sweat dropped as they watched Itachi laugh to himself. Itachi then regained himself "Okay, little brothers, follow me to the lake."

As soon as Itachi stepped outside he dropped to the ground and started hissing. "The light! (hiss) The light!"

Sasuke sighed and began pulling Itachi back into the house by his leg.

"Is he okay?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, he just gets this way when he's all dark and stuff."

Itachi then got up and dusted himself off. "Okay… you guys go and wait for me at the lake." He then pulled his cloak over his head vampire style and headed to his room.

15 minutes later at the lake

Itachi walked out of the house, this time wearing red tinted sunglasses, a red shirt with the Uchiha symbol and dark grey jeans. ( the sun seemed much brighter this time)

"Alright little dudes, front an' center! Time to learn the grand fireball technique." Itachi then did a set of hand seals and blasted a huge fire ball over the lake.

"WOW…" Naruto and Sasuke looked in awe.

"I'm going to teach you the hand seals and see if you can get it right. Don't worry; no one gets it on the first try it takes a bit of practice."

Itachi then showed the boys the seals and they tried to imitate them. It took a while because Naruto would somehow get the seals backwards and Sasuke would mess up the order. Finally, Itachi showed them the next step. "Alright, now I want you to focus on your lungs. (gives them a moment) Now breathe in and out slowly while concentrating."

The boys began the breathing exercise. Ten minutes later, (before the boys were about to get dizzy and fall over) a blue smoke came out of Naruto's mouth. He screamed and covered his mouth. Itachi laughed, "Good work Naruto, give it a bit more concentration and you'll be ready."

Sasuke was getting tired of this and was a little jealous of Naruto he let out a huff and a large ball of charka came out which quickly disappeared.

"VERY, good Sasuke now you just got to focus it more so that it lasts longer." Sasuke then continued his practice. Eventually both boys were able to blow a small ball of charka out of their mouths.

"Okay now go to the edge of the dock and combine what I taught you. Also the final step is to say or think '_Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu'. _Got it?" both boys nodded, "Alright Sasuke you go first then Naruto and keep taking turns 'till you get it right."

Sasuke stepped up to the edge of the dock and began the seals. "_Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"_ He then moved his thumb and index finger to make a circle and blew through it.

The result was a stream of fire that spread out to the size a napkin then the fire died.

"Good work Sasuke, now it's my turn!"

Naruto stepped up and did the same thing Sasuke did and blew. Naruto's fire did not spread out or create a ball but instead, it narrowed to a point and extended for a meter before going out. "Dang." He said.

The boys carried on attempting the jutsu, gradually getting better but not by a lot. Itachi stopped watching and sat on the edge of the dock reading a magazine (title: TenWay to Be Happeier as an Emo) while his mind was thinking emo thoughts (ex "Maybe if jump in the water now I could end it all.").

Mikoto came back to the house with a box of chocolate chip cookies for the boys. She began walking towards the boys when she noticed Sasuke was performing the seals for the grand fireball jutsu. She then smiled when she saw Naruto and Sasuke take turns at trying. She then made some seals of her own and poofed behind Naruto…

_Ten seconds earlier…_

Naruto POV

_Okay, this time I'll get it. I just need a little more charka is all. _He then expanded his lungs as far as they could go and began filling them with charka. _Alright! Now the seals…then… Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu and…_

POOF!

(general POV)

"Hello boys!" Mikoto said.

Surprised, Naruto then coughed/threw up/burped/hiccupped/spat his charka out and fell backwards. Mikoto, Itachi and Sasuke looked in surprise at what Naruto created. A fireball about the size of a large dog was bouncing along the surface of the water. Normally a fireball would just disappear but this one just kept going and going.

"How the…"

"What the…"

"Did he..?"

Naruto then got back up and saw his fireball "No way…"

Then, the fire ball stopped bouncing and began moving back towards Naruto, very, very fast. Itachi and Mikoto used water jutsus to try and put it out but it kept coming

"Everyone jump!" Itachi yelled as he and Mikoto (who by now had dropped the cookies) dove into the water.

Naruto was frozen in place, the fireball coming closer.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled as he jumped in front of Naruto and pushed him into the water.

Instantly, the fireball connected with Sasuke's body and fell back onto the dock. Time froze as Naruto realized that Sasuke was on fire.

"AAAAAGH! It burns!" Sasuke screamed as he picked himself up and started running like a maniac.

"Sasuke!" Naruto got up and scooped some water into his hands and looked around himself, when he noticed something. The cookies also had flames on them but they weren't melting. In fact, most of the dock was on "fire".

He looked up and saw Sasuke screaming and flailing around on the ground. Naruto then ran up to Sasuke and put his hand on the boy's back where some of the fire was. He smiled slightly when he felt that the "fire" wasn't fire but just a big ball of charka.

"That's why water doesn't work on it." He thought.

Sasuke was still screaming his head off while Itachi and Mikoto were running up to him. Naruto then remembered a time where a person was running around in a panic. Another man picked this person up and "snapped them out it" as he said.

"It's worth a try."

Naruto then grabbed the front of Sasuke's shirt and pulled him up. Mikoto gasped at what Naruto did next.

"**Get**.(slap!) **A**.(slap!) **Hold**.(slap!) **Of**.(slap!) **Your**s**elf**. (double slap!) **Man**!(slap!)"

"Sasuke!" Mikoto yelled as she ran up to Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto yelled, "He isn't on fire, it's just charka, but he won't calm down. I need some help."

"I'd love to help!" Itachi said, smiling sadistically.

After a few more slaps and the odd punch now and then, Sasuke finally fell silent. He was still glowing with charka, but was able to stand on his own.

"Okay Naruto, how do we get the charka off of him?"

"Umm..." _Okay…deep breaths, think of a way…_

Naruto closed his eyes and breathed in and out slowly. Unknown to him, the charka around Sasuke began flowing into Naruto's mouth.

"Naruto, you're genius!" Mikoto yelled, and then remembered that she hated Naruto. _Wait, he's my son now. So I shouldn't hate him._

"What did you say Oka- I mean, Mikoto?" Naruto asked, remembering that he was not allowed to call Mikoto 'mom'.

"…Just do what you were doing." She said silently.

Naruto shrugged and continued breathing, shocked that it was so simple to get the charka off.

A few minutes later, Sasuke was completely clear of charka. Mikoto ran up to Sasuke and hugged him."

"Sasuke, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just a little shook up, I guess." Sasuke said then looked at Naruto, "Thanks for calming me down, Naruto. You are truly a friend who looks out for others!" then he dramatically gave the good guy pose, "A firend in need is a friend indeed!" (teeth "DING!")

"Yeah… Sorry about setting you on fire and all."

"Don't worry, that was my fault, that fire ball was heading towards you and I just wanted to be a hero."

Itachi then cut in "Well, that concludes training today. If you have any comments or concerns please don't bother to tell me about them. And Sasuke, here's a present."

Itachi handed Sasuke a video tape labeled SASUKE'S FIRST FLAMING.

"You video taped the whole thing?" Sasuke said, getting agitated.

"Yup, now you watch yourself scream like a girl over and over again."

"You bastard!" Sasuke yelled as he ran after Itachi.

Itachi then ran as Sasuke readied himself to throw the tape at him. Mikoto laughed and Naruto smiled.

_At least no one's mad at me._ He thought.

"Oy, Naruto!"

Naruto turned around and saw Fugaku at the back entrance of the house, holding a stack of papers.

"Naruto, come here. Sasuke!"

Sasuke had just pinned down Itachi and raised the video tape above his head like a knife, then he froze.

"Yes, Otou-san?"

"Come over here, you to Itachi."

Once the boys gathered around Fugaku he told them to sit down. He then showed Naruto the papers that he had.

"Naruto, do you know what these are?"

Despite being an orphan and having no pervious schooling, Naruto was a pretty avid reader for someone his age.

"They're… official documents from the Hokage." He looked at them a little longer "What's it mean by 'adoption'?" he asked.

Itachi smiled but Sasuke, like Naruto, had no idea what was going on.

"It means that you are now an official family member of the Uchiha clan." Fugaku announced happily.

Naruto and Sasuke were shocked.

"So, he's now my brother?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes."

"And my new name is… Uchiha Naruto…"

"No."

"No?"

Fugaku nodded. "I want you to keep your name, Naruto."

"Why?"

"Trust me, when you grow up you'll be happy that you kept that name."

Naruto was still confused but he decided to brush that aside. Itachi then stood up and held out his hand.

"Welcome home, brother." He said in the most dramatic voice he could summon.

Naruto took his hand and Itachi pulled him up. Naruto then looked at Mikoto.

"Does that mean I can call you mom now?" he asked.

"…"

She sighed, "Yeah, why not?"

Naruto ran up and hugged her, tears pouring from his eyes. Mikoto gasped in surprise, her instincts told her to push the boy away. Another part of her told her to embrace him.

_This is what it means to be a mother,_ she thought as she hugged him back.

"Alright!" Itachi shouted, "This calls for a celebration. On to Ichikaru's!"

Fugaku smiled "Agreed. It shouldn't be too busy right now."

Fugaku, Itachi and Sasuke began walking when hey noticed Naruto and Mikoto weren't following them.

Itachi turned around "Okaa-san?"

Fugaku held up a hand to silence him. "Let's go reserve a table, they will catch up later."

Itachi understood and nodded. They silently walked away, leaving Naruto and Mikoto to embrace in the sunset.

A/N: there's chapter 2 for ya (revised thanks to reviews). Chapter three is up so... yeah... read it. Anyways plz read and review. Action scene in next chapter…. new character ...Coming soon!


	3. Anyone for Soccer?

OMG! could not post anything last weekend! I am soooooo sorry! I thought that it would take longer for FFN to fix. sorry.

A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome to a new chapter in the life of Naruto! I admit, there will be a bit of a lot of descriptions in this chapter but that is to introduce a new character (gasp!) who could it be? Read and find out.

And please for the love of Kami review! I need your positive advice to fuel chapter 4, and maybe some suggestions

Anyone for Soccer?

It has been three weeks since Naruto was adopted by the Uchihas and things were finally looking good. Fugaku had bought Naruto some new clothes, since he only wore his white shirt and black pants. Now, Naruto mostly wore black cargo jeans with a blue shirt and what looked like a chuunin jacket.

Eventually, Mikoto was getting used to having Naruto around the house. He was always doing one chore or another that no one told him to do. If she needed anything done, Naruto would be the first to volunteer. Once she had seen him attempt to make dinner (egg rolls with curry rice) but failed miserably. She decided to help him and the outcome was the best egg rolls that the Uchihas have ever eaten.

Mikoto wasn't the only one who grew to like the boy. Around the Uchiha part of town, Naruto was seen picking up garbage or cleaning people's windows. Some were shocked to see him one day in the Laundromat offering change to anyone who needed more laundry loads done. The small Uchiha section opened up more to Naruto now.

Uchiha shops wouldn't even dare to overcharge him for food or other things. In fact, some would even slip a free apple or dango stick into his shopping bags. If Naruto could change the minds of the Uchiha clan about him, then changing an entire village would be easy. The best part of living with the Uchihas was…

**All the ramen he could eat!**

As Naruto would walk down the streets, cooks would come out to him with ramen bowls and say things like "Hey, Naruto! Come here and try my new recipe." Or "I know it's missing something, could you help me out?"

Under the guidance of Mikoto and other Uchiha chefs, Naruto became quite skilled in the fine art of ramen.

Then there was the matter of Sasuke. He had become best friends with Naruto ever since he "saved" him from the bullies. Sasuke still carried on with his saving people routine. He single handedly took out three shoplifters with a metal pole andhelped a total of twenty old ladies across the street (even though they don't have cars). Now, more than ever, he struck the nice-guy pose to most adults and donned the name "The Awesome Blue Beast of Konoha!" His so called 'naming ceremony' consisted of forcing Itachi to carry him on his shoulders while wearing a blue towel around his neck and running up and down the streets.

Needless to say, Naruto and Sasuke spent most of their time together when they weren't flashing poses and eating ramen.

Lately, there has been news spreading around that the Kazekage would visit Konoha. Naruto had no idea what a Kazekage was so he asked Fugaku.

"Well, simply put, the Kazekage is like our Hokage, he oversees the Hidden Village of Sand."

"Why would someone want to live in a village of sand?"

"It is home to them as Konoha is our home."

Instantly, Sasuke came into the room "Otou-san! He's here! The Kazekage is here. Okaa-san and Itachi are waiting for us to join them at the north gate."

Fugaku them held Sasuke and Naruto close to him and said "Hold on tight." As he performed the transportation jutsu (I like to call the "POOF"). They were standing behind Itachi and Mikoto.

"Otuo-san! Lookie! Lookie! The Kazekage has arrived!" said Itachi, jumping up and down, obviously in happy mode.

Naruto looked in awe as many of Konoha's villagers gathered to see what was happening. The large north gate was open and a train of attendants were walking through. Then a large bronze scorpion appeared. Naruto was instinctively going to attack it in defense but then realized that the scorpion was in fact the Kazekage's "carriage". A small tent was placed on the scorpion's back to hide the Kage. Six people (three on each side) were carrying the scorpion on their shoulders. They were wearing armour that matched the colour of the scorpion. The contrast made it look like the people's legs were those of the giant scorpion.

Drummers beat their drums in a military fashion as flag bearers waved their banners while performing a small danceas they walked. Female attendants displayed dazzling orange and yellow kimonos that were decorated with rare moonbeam flowers. Once all the representatives of Sand were in, the large gates closed behind them. The drumming increased to a speed that would be impossible for a normal band, finally, they beat in one huge crescendo and the train of attendants stopped.

The persons carrying the large scorpion slowly lowered themselves onto one knee. The front of the tent slowly opened to reveal the Kazekage. He was a tall man who wore a veil over the lower part of his face, covering his mouth and nose. Naruto noticed that he had the same robes as the Hokage, except that his were blue. The Kazekage slowly stepped down from the scorpion and made his way to the Hokage tower. He then stopped and looked to his right. Obviously something was wrong as he walked back to the scorpion and put his hand into the tent.

The crowd gasped as he pulled out a boy about a head smaller than Naruto with red hair. The boy paled when he looked at the crowd and hid behind the Kazekage. The Kazekage then knelt down and whispered something to the boy. The boy nodded and then went to the Kazekage's side as they walked to the hokage tower together. The people in the crowd looked at the boy and some muttered "Kawaii!" but when the boy looked at them they would recoil with disgust.

Naruto and Sasuke couldn't see what the people were making a big deal out of because the boy and the Kazekage had already passed them. Once the Kazekage reached the tower, the doors opened and he, the boy and his attendants entered the tower. People then began to leave the crowd and carried on with what they were doing.

"Otou-san, why is the Kazekage here anyway?" Sasuke asked as the family was walking back to their house.

"It's a bit of a fragile matter, but, before Itachi was born, the Leaf and Sand were at war. It lasted for quite a while but finally ended when Itachi was three. Since then, there was an uneasy truce between us. But, both villages grew worrisome even when such things as passing a class of Genin happened in each country. They thought we were preparing an uprising and we thought the same about them. Today, the Kazekage and Hokage are meeting to discuss a certain amount of ninja that the villages can have and trying to clear up some rumors of attacks made on each other."

"Who was that boy that was with the Kazekage?" Naruto asked.

"I think that was his son, Kankuro. I expected him to be older but I guess I got my information wrong."

Once they got to their house, Mikoto walked into the kitchen. "I'll get lunch ready for us, you can go play boys."

"Alright!" Naruto and Sasuke shouted.

"Sasuke, get the new soccer ball." Naruto shouted.

"'Kay, Itachi are you gonna play?"

Itachi then placed his signature sunglasses over his eyes "A game where I can show up my brothers! How can I refuse?" Itachi then sped off in the direction of the soccer field.

Sasuke and Naruto sweat dropped and walked to the field.

Itachi was doing his warm ups when Naruto and Sasuke arrived.

"Let's do this!" Itachi yelled.

The boys agreed to two on one (Itachi against Naruto and Sasuke). The game was on…and over in fifteen minutes.

"Yatta! 99 to zero! You guys suck!" Itachi screamed after his latest goal as he perfomed an Irish dance.

"Okay Itachi, next goal wins." Sasuke said as he drop kicked the ball.

Itachi bounced the ball off his head and ran head on to the net. Naruto was goalie and tried to track Itachi's movements. Sasuke tried to charge at his brother but Itachi evaded him easily. Sasuke quickly recovered and attempted to slide tackle Itachi. Itachi managed to bounce the ball up high and jump over Sasuke at the same time. Needless to say, Itachi had skill. As the ball came down, Itachi readied himself for a bicycle kick when Naruto left the goal to intercept the ball. He jumped clear over Itachi and managed to tap the ball over to Sasuke. Quickly, Sasuke ran up the field to try and score on Itachi's empty net.

"(huff huff) I'm gonna make it! Just a little more and-"

Itachi then appeared behind Sasuke and stole the ball before Sasuke knew what happened.

"Kuso…" Sasuke muttered as he saw Itachi run back up the field towards Naruto.

"Naruto! Protect the net with your life!"

Naruto concentrated as Itachi came closer. Itachi then rolled the ball onto his foot and launched it into the air. With a spinning back kick, Itachi kicked the ball at tremendous speeds towards the left side of the net.

"This is gonna hurt… but I must protect the net!"

Naruto jumped in an attempt to grab the ball. His hands were within reach of the ball now, he closed his hands together… then the ball moved to the right and up over Naruto, scoring the winning goal!

Naruto landed painfully on his side and turned over to look for the ball. He picked it up hoping to find some sort of device that would make it change directions. Instantly, the ball floated out of his hands towards Itachi. Naruto then noticed there were blue strings leading from his fingertips to the ball.

"Chakra strings, gotta love 'em." Itachi said with a big smile on his face.

Sasuke ran up behind Itachi and whacked him on the head "Cheater!"

Naruto then ran up to Itachi and did the same "We want a rematch!"

"MOMMY!" tears ran down Itachi's face anime style as he dropped the ball and started to run.

"Come back here!" Naruto and Sasuke started to chase after Itachi while throwing stuff at him.

Little, did they know, that someone was watching them the whole time. This person then walked up to the boy's soccer ball and cast a menacing shadow over it.

Mikoto was bandaging Itachi's head as more tears flowed from his eyes.

"You shouldn't have hit him boys that was very unmanly of you."

"But Okaa-san, he cheated in our soccer game!"

Mikoto looked at Itachi angrily, with Sharingan activated, paper fan in hand, and fire in the background, "Did you really cheat Itachi?"

"(sigh) Yes…" WHACK!

Normally a paper fan wouldn't hurt at all, but in the hands of an angry woman, it was three times more powerful than Sasuke and Naruto's punches combined.

"Owie…" Itachi whispered before he fell over unconscious.

Naruto and Sasuke stared in shock as Mikoto looked at them then smiled "Lunch is ready boys; it's in the dining room."

The two boys then scrambled away from their insane mother and quickly found their food.

After fifteen minutes of eating contests, a small food fight and admiring the absolute beauty of the contents of a ramen bowl, Naruto finally thought of something.

"Hey, Sasuke, did we come back with the soccer ball?"

"…"

"…"

(Both in perfect unison) "KUSO!"

Just as both boys reached the front door to put their sandals on, a menacing shadow was cast against the paper door.

_**Knock! Knock!**_

Both boys froze and looked at the door.

"You answer it." Sasuke said.

"No, you do it, it's your house."

"It's your house to, baka."

"Damn…"

Naruto slowly stood up and reached a hand out to open the door. The shadow was almost twice as tall as Naruto and twice as wide as well. He gulped as he slid the door open and looked up.

"Huh?" no one was there.

"Ahem, down here." A small voice said.

Naruto looked down and saw the boy who was with the Kazekage. He also was momentarily blinded when he realized that the sun was directly behind the boy, which caused the big shadow.

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. Sasuke then looked over Naruto's shoulder and saw the boy.

"You were the boy with the Kazekage weren't you?" he asked.

"Y-yes, he's m-my f-father."

"Wow, the son of the Kazekage at my house, this is a glorious day for the Awesome Blue Beast of Konoha!" Sasuke said striking the good guy pose.

The red-haired boy sweat dropped.

"Umm… anyway, I came to return this." He said as he revealed the soccer ball.

"Our ball!" Sasuke then took the ball and started stroking it. "It's okay, you're safe now."

"How did you find the house?" Naruto asked.

"The address w-was written on the ball." Sure enough, Mikoto had taken the responsibility to write their address and 'Uchiha' on the ball with permanent ink.

"Hey, Sasuke, since we got the ball back let's play another game."

"Sure."

The boy then spoke up "Can I play too?"

"Of course! You saved our ball from the evil grip of thieves; the least we could do is let you play with us." Sasuke said.

As the boys walked Naruto kept up a conversation.

"Your name's Kankuro, isn't it?"

"No, K-Kankuro's my older brother. I'm Gaara, the next Kazekage."

"But, if you're the younger brother, why do you get to be the Kage?"

"I-I'm not supposed to tell about that but it's because I was selected to be."

"The Kazekage is supposed to be the strongest of their village, you don't look very strong to me." Sasuke said.

"Otuo-san said that looks can be deceiving."

Naruto looked at the boy in confusion and then noticed something

"Gaara, what are those rings around your eyes?"

Gaara seemed to think up an answer and finally said "They are the result of constant day and night training." He said unconvincingly.

The boys finally reached to soccer field relieved that no one else was there. Sasuke agreed to play goalie while Naruto and Gaara played one-on-one. For a kid smaller than Naruto, Gaara was pretty good at soccer. He was able to easily mess with Naruto's head, giving him the advantage. He foot work needed work though, Naruto could almost instantly steal the ball from Gaara.

"Okay, 19 to 21, I'm winning, but I can't keep up with his speed." Naruto thought, exhausted.

"Getting tired already? That's a shame, Naruto." Gaara said, only slightly tired.

"Dream on (huff) I… can… win." Naruto began to run towards Gaara when another soccer ball smacked him in the face.

"Hey! You got in the way of my perfect shot!"

Three boys emerged from the other side of the field. Naruto recognized the boys immediately, they were the boys who nearly killed him with the ropes when he was tied up.

"(gasp) Nii-san! It's the demon child." Said the youngest pointing towards Naruto.

"And his friend, the Uchiha." Said the middle aged boy.

Sasuke then ran to help Naruto "What do you want here?"

"We just want to play soccer butyour petdemon is blocking our way." the boy then pointed his finger.

Gaara then twitched. "You'd better watch your mouth."

"Why? Everyone else calls him a demon, why shouldn't we?"

Gaara again twitched in confusion, realizing that the boy wasn't pointing _at _him but behind him,_"Him?"_ he thought looking at Naruto, and then he noticed the whisker marks, _"It can't be…"_

"Now if you don't mind, get off our field so that we can play."

"Hey, we were here first and were only taking up half the field; you go take the other half." Sasuke said.

"Are you trying to start a fight with us, Uchiha boy?" asked the older boy.

"That wouldn't be very wise..."

"Because we just graduated from the academy."

(all three together) "We are now full fledged Genin!"

The boys then pointed to their Konoha forehead protectors. Sure enough, the graduation of the new Genin took place four days ago.

Gaara laughed "I'm only eight and I'm already training to be the next Kazekage. Don't go thinking that you can take me on."

"Is that a challenge?" asked the older boy.

"Gaara don't fight them they're weak enough against us." Naruto said.

"Yeah all three of us can take 'em." Sasuke said.

"Very well." Gaara said as Naruto and Sasuke stood on the left and right side of Gaara.

The three boys then took their positions "Bring it."

Gaara, who still had the ball, simply kicked the ball towards the oldest boy. He simply side stepped to dodge it.

"Ha! Missed m- ugh!"

Gaara, using a large burst of speed, ran up to the boy and punched him hard in the stomach, which caused him to fall over in pain.

"Nii-san!" the younger glared at Gaara, "You'll pay you bastard."

He pulled out a kunai and threw it at Gaara. Gaara placed his hand on the ground and a wall of sand appeared, blocking the kunai.

"My turn!" Sasuke yelled.

He jumped onto Gaara's shoulder and leaped over the sand wall. He did the hand seal for his attack and yelled "_Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"_

A large fireball sped towards the three boys. The middle aged one stepped up and yelled "_Suiton Suijinheki!" _a wall of water erupted from the ground and blocked the fireball.

"Is that all you got?" The middle aged asked.

"You haven't seen my move yet" Naruto said, as he ran up to the boys.

Sasuke grabbed Naruto's wrist and began spinning, the momentum kept Naruto airborne. After a few seconds, Sasuke let go of Naruto and he began flying towards the boys. He began the hand seals for the fireball technique but instead yelled "_kaenhoushaki mogi no jutsu!" _(1) Naruto gave out a strangled cough as a spread fire of orange fireballs sped towards the three boys.

"Heh, such idiots." Muttered the middle aged boy.

Both he and the youngest then yelled out "_Suiton Suijinheki!" _this time, two walls of water appeared. The boys smirked as they heard the hiss of the flames extinguishing. They were then shocked when they saw that the fire balls broke through their shield and bounced along the ground towards them.

"What the he-"

The tree boys could not react as the orange balls hit them.

"AAAAAAGHHHHH! It burns!" The three boys began running in all directions trying to get the fire off. They even tried water jutsus on each other of just managed to injure each other.

Gaara then called forth a wall of sand and caused it to crash down of the boys. Sasuke then did the grand fireball technique again and evenly spread it over the sand. The heat then caused the sand to turn to glass, trapping the boys in it, only their head were visible above the sand level.

The boys were still screaming their heads off when Naruto appeared and began to breathe his charka back in.

"You're lucky that my friend's charka was protecting you or else you would have suffocated to death from the sand, burned to death and then had your skin melted to the glass." Sasuke said, standing triumphantly over the heads of the boys.

"Naruto, what was that jutsu that you did?" Gaara asked.

"Oh that? It was my flamethrower imitation technique. Me and Sasuke discovered it after I set him on fire with it."

Suddenly, a POOF appeared and Itachi, in full Jounin uniform, appeared.

He looked around and saw Naruto, Sasuke and Gaara standing on a mound of glass with three heads in it. Despite all the things Itachi had seen, this had to rank at least third or second.

"Okay… you boys are going to have to explain this to me."

Gaara stepped forward, "These genin started some trouble and we merely stopped it."

"That's not true! He kicked a soccer ball at me!" the older boy yelled.

Itachi sweatdropped "That's hardly a reason to start a fight."

"And in all truth, you kicked it at me first." Naruto said.

"Are you saying that you three just took out three genin? By yourself?"

(all three) "Yep."

"It was a battle worthy of the Awesome Blue Beast!" Sasuke said giving the good guy pose.

Itachi then pulled out a notepad, "Anyways I've got to make a report about this to the Hokage. Oh and before I forget… _onpa no jutsu.(2)"_

Itachi opened his mouth in a silent scream and the mountain of glass completely shattered. There were no large bits, all the glass just seemed to turn back into the size of sand grains.

Itachi then looked at the three brothers. "I don't want to have to make another report about you boys causing trouble, got it?"

The three genin nodded and ran away, Itachi then POOFED away.

"Well, that was entertaining." A voice said out of nowhere.

Naruto, Sasuke and Gaara spun around to see the Kazekage and Hokage.

"Kage-sama!" Naruto and Sasuke bowed.

"Otou-san!" Gaara said then bowed.

"Stand up boys, we're all equals here." said the Hokage, as the boys stood up.

"What you boys did was very impressive indeed. Especially your teamwork." The Kazekage mentioned.

"Arigatou, Kage-sama." The three boys said.

"Now, Gaara is it?" Gaara nodded "I know that you are currently training to be the next Kazekage, but you boys…" he stared at Sasuke and Naruto. "Are you planning to sign up for the ninja academy this year?"

"Hai! We sent in our requests two weeks ago, Hokage-sama." Sasuke answered.

"Good, I'm sure that Konoha will need two talented ninja like you to protect us, or, to assist our allies."

"I agree," the Kazekage said "The Sand would be grateful to have your help in the near future."

"We won't hesitate to accept any missions from Sand." said Naruto.

The Hokage chuckled and looked at the Kazekage, "Well, I believe that your village will be awaiting your return."

Naruto then asked the question that almost everyone was thinking. "Kage-sama, will there be a war?"

Silence followed for a few seconds the…

"If you had been listening to our conversation you would have heard that Sarutobi-sama referred to the Sand as 'allies'."

Naruto then bowed his head "Gomen, Kage–sama."

"Perfectly alright. Well, Gaara, it's time that we went back to Sand."

"Already? Can't we stay longer?"

"Sorry, Gaara, but there are important matters back home that we must look into."

"That's too bad, I was going to ask Gaara over to our house for ramen." Sasuke said.

"What's ramen?"

Naruto and Sasuke face-planted "You don't know what ramen is!"

"Is it a vegetable?"

"Oh my god! Kazekage-sama, if you're going to leave, would you please wait at the gate for us? We want to give Gaara a going away gift."

"Um… sure-" before he could finish, Naruto and Sasuke ran as fast as they could to their house.

_**Fifteen minutes later…**_

A large crowd had gathered to see off the Kazekage and his son. Some villagers still gave Gaara some awkward glances as he stepped up to the scorpion tent. The drummers, banner holders and attendants assumed their positions as the group was preparing to leave.

"Son, we can't wait much longer, we'll have to go."

"Just two more minutes, please."

"Stop!" a loud voice cried out.

The crowd gasped as they turned and saw 'the demon child' and an Uchiha running towards to large scorpion with two metal thermoses. They were blocked by guards but the Kazekage dismissed them.

Naruto and Sasuke each held up a thermos and a pair of chopsticks to the Kazekage. People were confused that the village demon and an Uchiha were presenting 'gifts' to the Kage. Some were thinking things like "That demon has a lot of nerve to talk to a Kage!"

"Sorry, we're late, Kage-sama, we ran out of noodles so we had to make them from scratch." Naruto said.

Gaara then spoke "It's okay guys we weren't going to leave without you."

"Oh, and another thing…" Sasuke then reached into his pockets and pulled out a pair of red tinted sunglasses. "Nii-san said that they would look better on you than him."

Gaara smiled as he took the gifts, "Thank you guys, oh, and you forgot this again." Gaara then pulled out the boys' soccer ball.

"Thank you again for finding it!" Sasuke said then began stroking it again.

"I hope that you will come to visit sometime soon."

"We'll try." Both boys said at the same time.

"Thank you, boys, for spending time with my son. I am grateful that you fought alongside him as well. I will remember this whenever you need a favour from Suna."

"Arigatou, Kage-sama."

The guards in bronze armour then lifted up the scorpion and began their march out of Konoha. The drummers began their beat and the banner holders spun their flags in marveling circles.

"Bye! Come back soon Gaara!"

As the train of attendants disappeared behind the hills, the villagers could very faintly hear two voices that shouted "This is the best food EVER!"

Jiendo (or) The end

That just about does it for chapter three. Hope you enjoyed it

Anyway please review (somehow you can review without an account or something like that so if you don't have a account please do that)

Next chapter will begin the Saga of the Ninja Academy! (yes, I will think of a better name but that's all I got at the moment)

Be sure to add this to your alerts list to find when the next chapter will arrive.

_**Jutsus:**_

1. **_kaenhoushaki mogi no jutsu: _flamethrower imitation technique, Naruto's fake fire that caused the target to believe that he/she is set on fire.**

**2. _onpa no jutsu_: sound wave technique, a blast of sound that could shatter the inside of a person's head if strong enough (gross!) **


	4. The Academy Escapades p1

Ohayo! Welcome back to another chapter of Naruto of the Uchiha clan. I tell ya, writing, playing guitar and eating mr.noodles all at the same time is the best way to come up with story ideas.

First let's answer some reviews:

**PANSUKE:** I know that suijinheki is Jounin level but I needed a water barrier to show the effects of the flamethrower imitation off. Let's just say that the genin tried to master it and partially did.

**Reiko no Tori:** sorry for making you almost choke and die. I will try harder in this chapter to tone down the laughter…not! Lol

**Angel of Forgotten Souls**: I know Itachi kill his clan at the age of thirteen but in my version, things will become way more different. Overall, I will NOT let Itachi kill the clan (no matter how emo he is ((does that make sense?)). But things will become hectic for the Uchihas later on.

**Antiassassinguy**: I know I rejected your idea for a naru/kure fic but, after careful thought, I have placed her in a role that will, let's just say… bring her _pretty _close to naruto

Anyways… as promised, Naruto and Sasuke will begin their training to become ninjas!

The Academy Escapades

Part 1: Great Expectations… Even Greater Disappointments

Sasuke Uchiha awoke from a wierd dream about a strange girl with multi-coloured hair who suddenly turned into a banshee and multiplied many times over, surrounding him on all sides. All of them then opened their mouth and shouts and cries similar to those at rock concerts were blasted at Sasuke.

"That was weird..."

He then pulled a book out from under his pillow. The title read 'The Young Psychic's Guide to Dreams' (yeah, he's into that stuff… just don't tell anyone). He looked up the word "Banshee" and the definition told him to turn to page 23. On that page he saw a picture of the banshee in his dream. He then read:

"The Banshee with multi-coloured hair represents a bad omen. If it multiplied, that means that popularity is fast approaching, but at a great cost. Those who admire you will follow you to no end! Privacy will be invaded your belonging will be treated as god-like idols to adoring fans. _Hint:_ Beware of long haired females."

"Well, that can't be good…" Sasuke muttered, and then dismissed his thoughts as he smelt the delectable smell of ramen.

He walked into the kitchen and saw Naruto eating his way through his tenth bowl of ramen.

"Hey, same some for me would ya?"

Naruto looked up, his sleepless eyes sunk into his head and he laughed menacingly, "NEVER! It's all mine!"

Sasuke sweatdropped as Mikoto passed a bowl of ramen to him.

"Eat up Sasuke; today's your big day."

Suddenly Fugaku walked into the room. "Honey, I can't find my good uniform! And I lost my shoe!"

"Fugaku dear, calm down. Remember how you acted at Itachi's academy initiation?"

_Flashback_

_A seven year old Itachi was just about to enter the gates to the academy when Fugaku pulled him back._

"_Son, are you sure that you want to do this, being a ninja is a big job you know?"_

"_Otou-san, of course I want to do this! Being a ninja has always been my dream."_

_Fugaku still looked worried. "Well, just remember, there are bullies in the school and… um don't do drugs…um… avoid prostitutes…"_

"_Fugaku!" Mikoto yelled slapping him on the head._

"_Just have fun Itachi, okay?" Mikoto said as she handed him his lunch._

"_I will, oka-san."_

"_There he goes, my little boy…" Fugaku said, tears welling in his eyes_

"_Um… Fugaku are you crying?"_

"_Maybe he should wait another year…he's so young. What if he's not ready?"_

"_I'm sure he'll be fi-"_

_Suddenly his tears were flowing uncontrollably. "Itachi! Come back! You're not ready!"_

_Mikoto then grabbed Fugaku's shoulders and dragged him back home._

"_I promised myself I wouldn't cry…"_

_End Flashback_

"Otou-san you cried?" Naruto asked.

"No" he said quickly, "It was… I had something in my eyes that's all."

Itachi then entered the room "Oh he cried all right. Enough to fill our little lake in the back three times over. Yup, 'twas a sad day for Fugaku Uchiha."

"Itachi, are you coming to see your brothers' initiation?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world; I want to see the looks on their faces when they see what's in store for them."

Sasuke involuntarily shivered, "What's in store for us?"

"Well…not only do you get initiated by the teachers but also the higher up grades as well. And let me tell you, it ain't pretty."

"What happened to you then?" Naruto asked.

"Well, they give these things called 'swirlys'."

"Like ice cream swirlys or something like that, right?"

"You'll find out soon enough. Anyway, you know Old Twitchy from down the road?"

"Yeah, what about him?"

"There's a reason why he's all twitchy like that."

Sasuke and Naruto both gulped "Initiation…?"

"Exactly."

Both Sasuke and Naruto paled as Mikoto cut in "Itachi, instead of scaring your brothers you should be helping them get ready."

"Okay, okaa-san." Itachi then guided Sasuke and Naruto to their rooms "Maybe we can visit Old Twitchy on the way out." Both boys squeaked in fear and ran into their rooms and hid under their bed.

1 hour later…

"Stop worrying boys, you'll be fine." Mikoto said.

"But what if we end up like Old Twitchy?"

"You won't, trust me. Besides, Julian, that's his real name, became like that when a shuriken cut some nerve endings in his spine, not from initiation. And, he isn't old, his appearance is just related to his bloodline limit."

Both boys calmed down a bit. "But what about swirlys?"

"Once again, don't worry. If Iruka-san is still there then he will take care of you."

"Who's Iruka?"

"He was Itachi's teacher when he was in the academy. He's only a chuunin but says that he doesn't want to take the Jounin exam because he likes teaching so much."

The Uchihas arrived at the academy and saw many other children with their parents as well. Sasuke looked around and saw that all the females in the area had really long hair.

"_This isn't good…"_ he thought as he remembered his dream.

He then turned his head and saw a small girl with long pink hair. She looked really nervous and held herself closely to her mother. For one brief moment she turned her head and met Sasuke's eyes. At that time, a gust of wind fluttered past Sasuke's right eye, causing him to wink. The pink haired girl blushed and hid her face in her mom' dress.

"_Shit... did I just wink at her?" _Sasuke thought in disgust.

"Attention parents and students-to-be," a man in his mid-twenties with a ponytail spoke through a megaphone, "the class lists are now posted on the front door. Please guide the students to their respective classes and we'll take care of the rest."

A mob of people crowed around the front door to see who would be in which class.

"Otou-san, I can't see the list." Naruto said.

Itachi then grabbed the back of Naruto's and Sasuke's shirts "Allow me to take care of that." He then lifted both of them up over his head, being careful not to strangle them.

The boys were then able to read the list. They searched the papers until they found their names.

"Hey, Sasuke, we're in the same class!"

"Yatta!"

The paper then told them to go to room 12, their teacher would be Iruka .

Itachi then put the boys down as Mikoto approached them.

"Okay, boys remember to treat your teacher with respect. He was the one who taught Itachi so he'll be nice to you if you're nice to him. Remember to also treat your classmates with respect."

"We will oka-san!" both boys turned towards the school as two large hands grabbed their shoulders. The boys turned again to see a teary eyed Fugaku.

"Boys, be careful alright? Bad people always target schools, ya know? Don't talk to strangers… and for the love of god, avoid prostitutes!"

"Fugaku!" this time, Itachi smacked him on the head.

"Time to bring him home…" muttered Mikoto.

As Itachi and Mikoto dragged Fugaku away he began yelling "NOOOO! I must protect them! They're not ready to become ninjas!"

"Bye, otou-san!"

Both boys finally entered the school and ran to room 12. Sasuke and Naruto both entered the room at the same time

"You're late!"

The man with the ponytail stood at the teacher's desk, evidently, this was Iruka. He glared at the boys and checked his class list.

"…Naruto Uzamaki, stay after school to clean the class. Maybe that will teach you not to be late for my class."

Sasuke looked confused, "Um, sensei, I was late too. Shouldn't I stay as well?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I said so! Now sit down before I make you stay after class to clean!"

"But I already should stay af-"

"Dammit, child! Stay after class to clean if you want to!"

"Thank you, sensei." Sasuke muttered.

Naruto and Sasuke then took their seats at the back of the class.

"You didn't have to defend me, Sasuke." Naruto said.

"We were both late so we should be equally punished. That is called justice; it is what I believe in. After all, I am the Awesome Blue Beast of Konoha!"

"Boys at the back, SHUT UP!"

The class proceeded as the students introduced themselves. Then Iruka handed out information sheets on what they would be covering over the school year. Each child faceplanted as they read the first sentence on the paper.

"NOTE: There will be NO instructing of taijutsu, ninjutsu or genjutsu for first years."

"What is this bull plop?" one boy shouted, "Why won't we learn any of the cool stuff this year?"

"YEAH!" the whole class shouted.

"Shut up! (the whole class fell silent) The reason you won't learn any 'cool' stuff this year is because you must learn the basics of the basics."

"What the hell does that mean?" a blonde girl asked.

"That means that you must be physically fit to learn taijutsu. You must learn chakra control in order to learn _any_ ninjutsu or genjutsu. And you must learn the history and theory of the ninja art in order to respect and uphold the laws of a ninja."

"This totally sucks!"

"Well deal with it!"

A small silence fell over the class until a boy with a black jacket and sunglasses stood up.

"Are we at least going to learn some exciting stuff from this history?"

"It depends whether or not I'm in a good mood, now sit down."

The rest of that day passed by silently, considering half the class was already asleep from boredom.

"And thus concludes that story of Yashu and the demon if the rain. Pack u your things and get out of here. Sasuke and Naruto, stay where you are."

After the students left the class, Iruka opened up a storage closet in the room and brought out mops and chalk brushes.

"Clean the boards and wash them. When you're finished with that, mops the floors, I expect them to be extremely shiny tomorrow." After he said that he picked up his jacket and left.

It took the boys half an hour to clean the boards mainly because they were so small and could not reach the top. In the end they resorted to standing on chairs and each other's shoulders. Then came the mopping. The boys started at the top of the class (the classroom looks the same as in the manga/anime) and tried to clean the floors with the soap.

"Do ya think the floor's shiny enough?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah… a little too shiny…" Sasuke looked at the soap bottle and smelled it.

"Yuck! It's olive oil!" he screamed.

"Nani!" Naruto took the bottle and put a little it of the oil on his hand. Sure enough, it was olive oil. "Who the hell keeps olive oil in a soap bottle?"

Naruto then turned the bottle over, a small sentence was written on the bottom; "U got initiated!"

"Kuso…"

Sasuke got a mischievous smile on his face as he eyed the olive oil, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I think I'm thinking what you're thinking." Naruto smiled as he took the lid off the bottle and turned it upside down…

**The next day…**

Iruka was late. Apparently this was a first for him. His new students had to wait outside the class. All the while, they mumbled between themselves.

"Why does he have to be late? I hate standing all the time!" the blonde girl asked.

"You act like you want to learn." The sunglasses kid said.

"Yeah, right! I just want this day to finish quickly."

"Quiet, he's coming!"

Iruka ran down the hall way at breakneck speed. "Sorry I'm late! I had to meet someone important."

He quickly unlocked the door and stepped in the class towards his desk. The sunglasses boy walked in then stopped. He turned to the blonde girl.

"Ladies first." He said and stepped out of her way.

"Damn straight!"

The class quickly ran to their desks unaware of the danger ahead.

"Itai!" Iruka said as his feet slipped out from under him, faceplanting into the chalk board.

"What th-" one boy spun around to see what happened, only to find that he spun around too fast. He fell into two other students and fell down the stairs.

"AHH!" the blonde girl screamed as she fell from the top platform all the way down to the bottom, taking down more kids on her way.

Iruka stood back up and attempted to catch some of the falling children, only to be met with a massive avalanche of students.

"AAAAAAHHHGGGHGHGHGH!" he screamed as the students crushed him.

Naruto, Sasuke and the sunglasses kid stood at the door way, watching the whole scene.

"Awesome!" Sasuke said.

"Totally!" Naruto said as they high-fived.

"Impressive." The sunglasses kid said.

Needless to say, the noise had attracted a large crowd out side the room. Children laughed at the spectacle as teachers tried to enter the room. They quickly met the same fate as the unfortunate kids and joined the pile.

The students were absolutely roaring with laughter now. None of the teachers dared to walk into the room for fear of falling.

Suddenly, the lights dimmed, storm clouds began gathering and the temperature dropped steeply. A large source of power appeared right behind Sasuke and Naruto.

"What's going on here?" a male voice asked.

"_That voice, it could only be-"_

"Itachi-san!" Iruka called from the pile, only his arm was visible now.

Naruto and Sasuke slowly turned around and their eyes met the Sharingan eyes of Itachi. And he was PISSED! Itachi then walked into the classroom. Students gasped as they saw his feet were glowing with chakra, allowing him to step on the floor easily. He stepped up to the pile and began picking people up and laying them down on the floor. He then turned to Sasuke and Naruto.

"Go to the office and seek medical help." He said as he finally reached Iruka.

"It was horrible, Itachi! People were falling all over the place and couldn't do anything to help!"

"You helped cushion their fall, that's the best you could do."

Naruto and Sasuke couldn't help but giggle at the melodramatics. They continued down to the office when they realized something,

"We are screwed if they find out it was us who did that." Naruto said.

"Yeah but it was worth it." Sasuke said as he pulled out Itachi's video camera.

"Nice."

They made it to the office and helped make a call to Konoha hospital. The hallways were closed as medic teams were wheeling out teachers and students in stretchers. Iruka's classroom was blocked by yellow tape and only one man was allowed in. He wore a forehead protector that covered his entire head and a large trench coat. An ANBU emblem was stitched on his right sleeve. That man was Morino Ibiki of the Interrogations Squad.

Itachi then appeared behind Ibiki. "Did you find anything yet?"

"I believe I have a lead." He reached down and picked up a soap bottle off of a desk.

"What do you think happened?"

"Well…"

_Ibki's POV (CSI style!)_

The perpetrator's would have been to eliminate an entire class of future shinobi. Yes… take out the young ones so that the old generation will have no fresh support, interesting tactic.

What I know is that this guy was smart. He didn't go all out with explosives or gas. Instead he wanted to make it look like an accident. His main target would be the teacher then the students. Smell that? It's olive oil. Very slippery, when used correctly. There may be some students in the class who are absolute klutzes. The perpetrator would have taken advantage of this and made it look like the clumsy kid fell first taking out everyone else in turn. Thus we have the case solved all we need is to catch the bastard who would do this.

_General POV_

"Ibiki, have you been watching CSI again?" Itachi asked.

"No…"

"You do know that show sucks right?"

"It does not! It's awesome! It has killing and blood and everything!"

"Anyway, I think you're wrong about the whole assassination thing. It seems to me that the bottle was left open and was tipped over. Since the room is in layers like a plateau, the oil dripped down all the way to the teacher's desk, thus covering the entire floor in olive oil."

"Oh yeah? Then who would be so stupid as to leave a bottle of olive oil out in the open? It's dangerous stuff you know?"

Itachi then remembered that his brothers were kept late after school.

"I think I have an idea…"

_Interrogation Room 13_

(let's just skip and the boring stuff and go right to the mental break down)

"So you did leave a bottle of olive oil on the desk!" Ibiki declared to a terrified Sasuke and Naruto.

"Yeah, b-but I guess we forgot to p-put it away." Naruto said.

"Well, I guess that I'll forget to not pull the switch on your electric chairs!"

Both boys paled "_This madman's gonna kill us over a bottle of olive oil!"_ thought Sasuke.

"That's enough, Ibiki." A man then walked into the interrogation room.

"Otuo-san!" Both boys jumped up and hugged their father.

"I think these boys learned their lesson. And, after all, it was a complete fluke that the bottle was tipped over anyway. These boys are therefore free of any charges."

"Very well, Fugaku. But I will keep an eye on these boys."

"Speaking of which, do you know who will be their replacement teacher? I heard Iruka's in the hospital for a good six months at least."

"That's what I meant by 'keeping an eye on them'."

Naruto gulped, "You mean, you're-"

"Yup, we'll be seeing a lot more of each other soon. And I believe our first lessons are on physical fitness… that's always fun."

_Why do I have a bad feeling about this?_ Both boys thought.

Six months later…

"C'mon you slobs! Don't tell me that none of you know how to climb a 2 hundred foot mountain."

"Ibiki-sensei, I'm getting light headed…" one boy said.

Ibiki walked along the mountain side using chakra. "That's the adrenaline rush, son. Can you feel it pulsating through your veins?"

"Actually, I can't feel anything at all…" the boy then lost his grip and fell.

Sasuke reached out a hand and caught the boy by his shirt.

"This is bloody crazy!" yelled Naruto.

The entire class was currently trying to scale a two-hundred foot mountain as their 'training'. During the previous six months, Ibiki had worked ever student to the ground. Sure they got to go outside a lot, but during this time of year it was always between cold and hot and was even wetter than usual. When they were outside, Ibiki would make them do such things as pushups while making them recite quotes from the textbook. If they messed up the quote, he would add a ten pound brick to their back and force them to continue.

To avoid the punishment many students, including Naruto and Sasuke, would spend countless hours reading their books, memorizing them cover to cover. Needless to say, they were the top of the class. Chakra control wasn't much of a challenge for them since they already knew a few jutsus themselves. It was just during meditation that they would become edgy; they never really could learn to sit still for a minute. Anyway back at the mountain…

"Ibiki-sensei, when is Iruka-sensei coming back?" the blonde girl asked.

"Oh, him? I told him to take the rest of the year off, he deserved it."

"NANI!" all the students stopped and some even let go of the mountain in surprise.

"What? Don't you kids like me?" Ibiki asked.

The whole class fell silent and continued their climb.

"This is like a nightmare!" Sasuke said.

"At least we can last through this; I'm not sure about the rest of the class though."

True to his word, Naruto and Sasuke had managed to keep ahead of the class. Everything Ibiki had challenged them to do they found a short cut that would make things easier for them.

Like for the mountain climbing, for example, they had borrowed a kunai from Itachi and put a rope through the loop at the end of it. By using a small bow they were able to shoot the kunai so that it planted itself into the mountain side. They were then able to create an elevator-like pulley system, using their own bodies as weight.

Ibiki watched the boys with interest. "Those boys sure are resourceful, I'll give them that."

Sasuke and Naruto reached the summit of the hill and waited for the rest of the class.

"Well, at least there's only four more months of this." Sasuke said.

"Yeah… hey, are you getting light headed?" Naruto asked as he started swaying back and forth.

"Ya know, I just noticed it now, but yeah, I am a little, why?"

and with that, both boys fell on the hard rock, unconscious.

_Four months later…_

"Congratulations, Uchiha Sasuke, you pass the first grade." The crowd burst into applause as Sasuke accepted his First Year Diploma. Then Naruto walked up to the stage.

"Congratulations, Uzamaki Naruto, the last student on the list but the top student of the grade." The announcer, Iruka, looked with distaste at Naruto and basically threw the Diploma at him. Nobody cheered, except for Itachi, Mikoto, Fugaku (who was crying) and Sasuke.

Naruto then steeped down from the stage and sat next to Sasuke.

"To all students and parents, the next year's class lists and information will be mailed to your houses near the end of the summer break. Congrats to all who passed and I hope to see you next year."

**A/N: **And I hope to see YOU next chapter! I know it's not my best chapter but they get better, especially after The Academy Escapades ends. The next chapter will take place during the third grade of the ninja academy. So that would make Naruto and Sasuke just about ten or eleven.

Can some one tell me Sasuke's birthday? I know Naruto's but I need Sasuke's as well.

Next chapter, more Itachi, out of control chakra and well… I don't know what else. But it'll be good trust me.


	5. The Academy Escapades p2

ANNNNND….. here it is! Chapter 5 of Naruto of the Uchiha clan! I plan to write a bit more detail since I think my other chapters were a bit choppy. Now the boys will begin their third year (had to skip second year, just not enough material to work with) at the ninja academy! What will happen? And why is Itachi involved? Read and find out!

**Reader Reviews!**

Isthisparadise: don't worry, Iruka won't be so conceited towards Naruto much longer.

Darkfireblade: you seriously think of my Itachi like that? Well, I did want to mess up his character a bit but that's going a bit far.

Dragonmaster: don't worry, this is not a naru/hina fic. I'm not sure who to pair Naruto with if I do choose to make a pairing, but it won't be Hinata (or sakura, she's bitched at Naruto too many times to be forgiven). I like your ideas but, if you want, I could hold a vote for possible pairings.

To all who gave me Sasuke's birth date, arigatou. Kudos to Suker-4-Kyuubi-No-Kitsune who also gave Itachi's birthday (which is fast approaching, CAKE!)

The Academy Escapades Part 2:

Naruto and the Technicolour Battle Coat 

"Right kick!"

"KYA!"

"Left!"

"KYA!"

"Left punch!"

"KY- wait a minute!" a blonde girl screeched and turned to her blonde partner.

"Naruto, its right kick, left kick, _right_ punch! Are you trying to piss off Iruka-sensei?" she screamed as she smacked him upside the head.

"I'm sorry, Ino!" Naruto whined.

"Well get it right or we both fail! And I don't think you want that to happen now do ya?"

"Of course not!"

"Okay, screw the practice stuff let's just go all out and see what happens." The girl said while positioning herself into a fighting stance.

"_Why did Iruka-teme pair me up with a bitch?"_ Naruto thought.

"Here I come!" Ino yelled as she charged toward Naruto with her fist.

"Kuso." He held his hand up and redirected her punch.

"_How dare he defend my attack like that?" _She thought as she attempted to trip him with her leg.

Naruto hopped slightly and landed on her ankle, pinning her to the ground.

"Had enough yet?" he asked.

"Are you kidding the writer hasn't even written a page yet! I still got more in me."

"Suit yourself."

Naruto jumped off her ankle and landed a few feet away. He brought his hands into a defensive pose while keeping his feet ready to run or leap. Ino stood up and charged again at Naruto. She jumped up and attempted to kick his face. Naruto bent over backwards making Ino fly right over him and into a practice mat.

"Never charge your opponent unless you have a good attack and defensive combo set." Naruto said, imitating Iruka.

"Like so?" Ino asked as she lifted the mat and threw it at Naruto. He simply pushed it away but it blocked his vision just enough for Ino to do another head on attack. Once the met left his field of vision, Ino's foot was a mere centimeter away from his chest. In a desperate attempt Naruto used both his arms to defend himself. Ino then drew back her attacking foot and extended her opposite leg to get under Naruto's defense, aiming at his stomach. Her foot connected and winded Naruto greatly. They both fell, and Ino's foot went deeper into his stomach once they hit the floor, winding him even further and causing him to cough up blood.

"Naruto!" Ino rolled off him and looked at his face. It was contorted in agony and he had rolled into a ball while continuing his coughing fit.

"Oh Kami, what have I done?" Ino had only taken basic first aid and did not know how to treat a person who coughed blood, then again, not a lot of people do these days.

Suddenly, Naruto stopped moving and seemed to have died.

Ino screamed and knelt down to Naruto. "No! Please don't die!"

Her scream had attracted some of the other students, including Sasuke. He ran towards Ino in hopes of saving a civilian in distress. Instead he saw his brother and the blonde girl.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Sasuke!" Ino looked up to him with tears in her eyes. "I went too far! I kicked him hard and then he died!"

Sasuke knelt down to Naruto and held his wrist. Feeling a pulse, Sasuke stood up and grabbed Ino "Get away from him Ino!"

He pulled Ino off Naruto just as small tendrils of orange chakra began leaking out of his body. The chakra enveloped him and sounds of ripping and crunching were heard.

"What's happening to him?" one student asked.

"Iruka-sensei, come quick!"

Iruka's P.O.V.

Sigh, sometimes I really hate kids. Especially the rookies, they're so hopeless! I spend five months teaching them all the basics for proper kicks and punches and they still get it wrong. So screw it I said, give them an assignment for them to memorize a fighting sequence and perform it. I even old them that they were to present in front of their parents as well. In the back of my mind however, I know that they'll all fail. But then again, there are my star pupils like Sasuke! He learns ultra fast and absorbs information like a sponge with water. His taijutsu is amazing and he has awesome chakra control. He's second best only to himself… and his 'brother'.

Naruto, the ideal student. He seems to know stuff even before I teach it to him. His chakra control is above average and he knows many jutsus that would overpower Sasuke ten-fold. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but still, he's been in the top of his class two years in a row. I even erase the kid's answers on his tests but that damned Hokage always intervenes! It seems like he wants the demon to become a ninja. Doesn't he see that if I teach the demon this stuff he'll turn against us and kill the village?

There must be some way to stop the kid from progressing.

Then I felt it, that chakra, it feels so cold all of a sudden. I'm scared. I haven't been this scared since… Kyuubi!

"Iruka-sensei, come quick!"

I don't want to move. I don't want to see that evil again. Hell, I was so young when it happened but it still scars my mind! My mind tells me to get the hell away, but as a teacher, my mind screams "Student in danger!" "Lawsuits ahead!".

Before I know what happens, I push all my chakra to my feet and rush over to where the students gathered. I have to push a few away to get to the demon. Instinctively, I pull out a kunai and look down. Right there at my feet, the boy lay but was surrounded by orange chakra. Thinking that this was a genjutsu, I form the correct seal and mutter "Kai!". Nothing happens, now I'm getting worried. That cold feeling I got starts to disappear however I look at the boy again and find that the chakra was entering his body.

End P.O.V.

_Hmmm…extensive damage to the lower ribs, internal bleeding all over the place and a ruptured kidney and spleen. Kid, if it weren't for me, you'd be dead right now._

(Naruto can hear the Kyuubi, but thinks that he is just talking to himself)

The children all gasped as Naruto sat up. Some backed away as others were too scared to move. Sasuke however walked up to his brother and held his shoulder. "Nii-san (brother) are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so." Naruto looked up to see the other students looking at him awkwardly.

"They saw didn't they?"

"Yeah, there was nothing I could do."

"(sigh) I guess it couldn't be kept a secret anymore."

"_Does he already know about the Kyuubi?" _thought Iruka.

Naruto stood up "Everyone, I have something I need to tell you all."

Whispers started and from what Naruto heard he wasn't happy.

"No, I am not a demon. I just have a certain bloodline limit."

Sighs of relief washed over the students, Iruka finally remembered to breathe as was holding his breath the whole time.

"My bloodline limit allows me to heal really fast and gives me more control on my chakra. If there was anything else I wouldn't know about it because my family is dead."

"So that mean's that you're invincible?" one kid asked.

"No, and I don't want to go testing that."

"Can you heal others as well?"

Sasuke spoke up, "No he can't, I broke my arm once and he tried to heal it, but nothing happened."

Suddenly the students who had backed away came closer and began bombarding Naruto with questions.

"_Great, now the demon's gonna be more popular than he was before." _Iruka thought.

Before the students could ask more questions, Iruka interrupted, "Alright class, I think that's enough excitement for today. Pack up your stuff and get going. Remember you're assignments are to be practiced and memorized in about two months. Naruto and Sasuke stay behind to put the stuff away."

Sasuke and Naruto grumbled but got to work. Before they started, however, Ino walked up to Naruto and hugged him. "I'm sorry if I hurt you."

"Hey, it's okay. I'm alright now. You got some pretty killer kicks though."

Ino blushed at the comment, "Thanks, you're not that bad either."

"We still have to do this stupid assignment though, meet me after I'm finished so that we can work on it."

"Okay, bye!"

Naruto waved then turned around to find Sasuke smiling at him, "Don't tell me you like Ino."

Naruto faceplanted "Of course not!"

"Naruto's got a girlfriend! Naruto's got a girlfriend! Naruto's got a girlfriend!" Sasuke jumped around and yelled.

"Shut up!"

_The next day_

Naruto and Sasuke sat beside each other in class during chakra theory (just like music theory but with chakra). They had to write a report on the importance of three of the twelve hand signals. Naruto had already written a page and a half but was bored as hell.

"Gahhh! I'm bored!"

Suddenly, the announcement speaker switched on. "Attention all third year students, today you will be given a special class in Sparring Room 4. The class will take approximately an hour and a half and will continue for two weeks. Students are to be expected in the Sparring Room after their lunch break. That is all."

Sasuke perked up, "Wow a special class! What do you think they'll teach us?"

"Well, since it's in a sparring room, it must be more taijutsu stuff." Naruto said.

"We'll juts have to see."

"Oi! Uchiha, Demon kid, shaddup!" Iruka yelled.

_

* * *

_

_12:30 out side Sparring Room 4_

The group of 36 students stood outside the door to the sparring room waiting for their teacher.

"Dude, how long's this gonna take?" the boy with sunglasses and trench coat asked.

"Shino, have some patience, seriously, that's like, the fifteenth time you said that!"

"Yeah, and the "dude" died like twenty years ago."

"(sigh) Yo peeps, how long's this gonna take?" he asked again.

"On second thought, just use dude."

The door to the room slid open suddenly, causing some students to jump. Naruto had his hand on the handle, "Heh, I guess the door was open this whole time."

The students groaned and walked into the class.

Suddenly a voice spoke from the shadows "You're all late! I do not tolerate lateness in my class."

"We thought that door was locked," said a boy with a furry hood jacket, "so we waited outsi-"

WWWWWWIZZZZZ! CLUNK!

Kiba stood stock still while looking at the kunai embedded in his furry hood, which was now pinned to the wall.

"Mr. Inuzuka, I would appreciate it if you didn't correct me in front of my students."

"U-u-u-understood sensei." Kiba stuttered.

"Now, everyone sit down, NOW!"

The class, which by now was scared shitless, ran to find a seat in front of their new sensei, but not too close. The face of their sensei was still hidden in shadows.

"Now, for those of you who don't know me my name is- what is it kid?" the voice said while looking at a student who raised their hand.

"Um, could we turn on some lights?"

"In due time. As I was saying, my name is…" at this point, two red eyes appeared.

"_Uh-oh…" _Both Naruto and Sasuke thought.

The lights suddenly switched on and who was standing in front of the students? None other than-

"Uchiha Itachi! Prepare to meet your maker…." At this some children screamed and others tried to run but were paralyzed in fear. Naruto and Sasuke just sat there, completely indifferent.

"….your maker of fine clothes, that is!"

"HUH?"

"Welcome to Sewing Class 101."

The whole class faceplanted, not even Naruto or Sasuke were prepared for this.

"What the hell do ya mean sewing class, that's for girls!" Kiba yelled.

Itachi and all the girls surrounded Kiba, with flames in their eyes and an undying thirst for blood,

"What did you say!" they all screamed.

"N-n-nothing, carry on, sensei."

Itachi gave Kiba a death glare "I don't like you Kiba… and I hate your coat!"

"What's wrong with my coat?"

Itachi reached out and ripped Kiba's jacket right off of him.

"This… is an abomination to fashion everywhere!"

"Hear, hear!" the girls yelled.

"This deserves to be used as firewood for some homeless guy. But I doubt even he would want it. In my class you will learn how to make your own clothes, which could be handy for a shinobi since your clothes will get ripped repeatedly on missions. This does not include just sewing, but metal working and leather tanning as well as other things necessary for making clothing. Just because the ninja itself is intimidating, doesn't mean that their clothes shouldn't be as well."

"But I thought all ninja gear was bought from stores." Ino asked.

"That's the crappy _standard_ clothing. What I am talking about is stuff, made by you, that actually is comfortable and moves with you when you move."

"Like silk boxers!" some random kid said.

Everyone sweat dropped, "Kid, get out, right now." Itachi said.

The random kid then walked out of the class, _"I'll get my revenge on you Itachi-sensei, or so help me god!"_ he thought.

"Anyway, you may be a person who depends on weapon or scroll pockets but there are never enough pockets on the shirts or along the pant legs." Itachi then rolled a projector to the front of the class.

"For example, the famed kunoichi, Yuuhi Kurenai wears a suit like this." The screen showed a red half-sleeve top that had a long scroll wrapped around it. "If you noticed, she wraps a scroll around herself. This is her families' scroll that has been passed down for generations. Instead of taking the scroll out of her pocket and unraveling the whole thing, she wears it around herself fully prepared to use it when the time comes."

"Wow! That's so cool!"

"Other ninja's, like myself, tend to go for looks that will scare people." Naruto then noticed that Itachi was wearing his Akatsuki robe. "Now admit it, you all were scared of my appearance because my eyes match my robe perfectly right?" Itachi said as he twirled on the spot so everyone could see the whole cloak.

"Actually we were scared because you came out of nowhere with red eyes of **DOOM**." Sasuke said.

"True, but I still think your were in awe of my awesomeness robe. Anyway, everyone find a partner and sit at a table."

"What table?" Kiba asked.

"(sigh) The ones behind you, dumbass."

The whole class turned around and saw two long tables. Each table had nine sewing machines on each table, totaling up to about …um… eighteen machines! Just enough for two people on each machine. Beside each machine was a full sewing kit with needles and two long lengths of material.

Naruto was about to pair up with Sasuke when Ino walked up to them. "Naruto, will you be my partner?"

"Um, sure." Naruto said. Sasuke then got that I-know-something-you-don't-know-smile on his face.

Naruto and Ino walked off to a sewing machine. Sasuke then realized something.

"Wait… that means I don't have a partner!"

"S-Sasuke?"

Sasuke nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned to the voice that caught him by surprise.

"_(gasp!) It's the pink haired girl!"_ he thought. "Um, hi?" he said outwardly.

"Will you be my partner for this?" she asked.

"Sure, I don't know much about sewing anyway." He replied.

"Neither do I, I'm Sakura by the way."

Sasuke then laughed a bit. "I'm Sasuke the Awesome Blue Beast of Konoha."

After a while, the pairs were made (nobody wanted to be with Kiba and they were short one person, so naturally, he worked alone) and Itachi settled the class down.

"Alright, the first thing you need to know is that needles are sharp. So sharp in fact that they are commonly used as weapons, like so…" He pulled out a sebon needle and threw it at the wall. The five inch needle sunk about three inches and a half into the wall. Some students gasped when they realized that the wall was made of brick.

"Now imagine if that was your skin." Itachi finished.

"Anyways, your first assignment will be to create a simple pair of pants, add pockets if you want to. Just as a heads up, your final assignment will be to create a suit that is fitted to you or your partner for your upcoming taijutsu demonstration, so I suggest that you start designing now."

The rest of the session carried on with many of the students catching their fingers in the machinery or poking themselves with needles. Itachi had to send some kids to the school nurse and still could not find a partner for Kiba.

At the end of the class only seven groups managed to make a pair of pants. Naruto and Ino's were okay but the pockets they added had holes that they missed. Sasuke and Sakura succeeded in making a complete pair of pants with pockets and belt straps but the length of the pants suggested that they were capris.

"Very good class, tomorrow we will make shirts. You are dismissed for now."

While the rest of the class left, Naruto and Sasuke stayed behind to ask Itachi something.

"Aniki (older brother), why did you, of all people, decide to teach this class?"

"I guess okaa-san never told you what my favourite pastime was."

"Sewing?"

"Yup. I know it's a little girly, but it's a good way to vent all that emotion that I get after missions. In fact, I designed my groups' robes." Itachi said as he held his Akatsuki robe.

"And most of those Uchiha banners around our town were also made by me."

Sasuke stared at Itachi, "Aniki, you are one weird guy."

"Heh. You guys are lucky you get to see this side of me. Most people think that I'm just some emotionless bastard who'll kill my whole clan someday without remorse."

"Wow, who said that?" Naruto asked

"Doesn't matter, they're dead now." Itachi said with an evil glint in his eye.

Sasuke and Naruto stiffened and started walking away. "Um, see you at home Itachi."

* * *

For the final week of the sewing class, the students had worked on their battle outfits. Itachi had put up barriers between groups saying that the outfits should be a surprise to the others, especially Iruka. Itachi was impressed at how fast the student began to appreciate the art of sewing. Some students were now able to cut out fanciful designs out of material and could easily apply them to the main clothes.

Itachi walked down the tables observing what his students were doing. He stopped at Sasuke and Sakura's section.

"What have we here?" he asked.

Sakura held up her uniform for Itachi. It was almost like her anime outfit but instead of an O on the back, it had a sakura tree on the back. The same tree was on her left sleeve.

It was pink and had an outline trim of red. The black shirt that she would have on underneath had many pockets on it for scrolls mainly. All along her black shorts were kunai pouches and some shuriken holders.

"Very nice, Sakura. You seem to be the type that depends on weapons but, after you complete academy training you won't really need them."

"What about you?" asked Sasuke, "You depend on your katana a lot."

"Not really, I only bring it out when necessary. Anyway, Sasuke let me see your battle gear."

Sasuke pulled up his suit with a smile. He had a black shirt with, of course, a metal symbol of the Uchiha clan. Attached to the shirt was a kunai holster (looks like a double gun holster from movies) which held eight kunai. He had attached a long blue cape, twice his size, to the collar of his shirt. Stitched on the back of the cape was a dark blue beast thing (looked like a cross between a wolf and a cougar). On both wrists he would wear large metal wrist bands that protected half of his lower arm. He even had brass knuckles. His black-grey shorts had many pockets for random stuff. His most important item though, was a large spool of wire connected to anchor hooks (smaller versions of kunai).

"Hmm. Good, but what are both of you doing for defensive clothing?"

"We got this!" Sasuke held up two skin tight shirts, "It's called under armour and will protect against most impact attacks and some pointy things."

"Impressive, well I look forward to your battle nii-san."

Itachi then went across to Naruto and Ino. "Naruto, Ino what have you got so far?"

Ino then showed Itachi her clothes which were laid down on the table. "My suit will be more of an assassin type. Under every stitch of clothing is a weapon. It keeps up with the latest fashions and can hurt anyone who says I look bad in it."

On the table she had a simple pair of black shorts with metal shin pads next to them. He looked at the shinobi sandals she had customized and saw that she installed a small knife that could come out of either the heel or toe in each sandal. Next to all that was a bright blue t-shirt but it had a metal arm on the attached to the right sleeve that looked like it was ripped off a suit of amour.

"Is a metal arm fashionable these days?" Itachi asked.

"No, it just looks good. It's just that under the armour are needle launchers and a kunai that comes out from the elbow. It also has a retractable blade."

Itachi gripped the metal arm and a fifteen inch blade shot out from the top of the wrist. (Like Sora's blade from .hack/sign) This shocked Itachi on the inside but outside, he kept his cool. "Very… creative, Ino. Although I think that you should work a bit more on your left arm."

"But I'm right handed." She said.

"Yes, but, trust me, you'll be thankful, maybe even lucky, to have all your limbs attached to your body when you retire from being a ninja."

Ino paled and immediately pulled out a second metal arm that was used for the left arm.

"Naruto, let's see your…whoa…"

Naruto's suit was obviously done mostly by Ino. His was a full kimono (not a girl kimono, like a guy kimono thing) But it was decorated in bright blue, green, red and yellow flames. The colouring was so well done that Itachi was entranced in it. The sleeves would come down almost to his knees and it seemed that it would be impossible for anyone to walk in it. Around the waist was an orange belt which carried two kunai pouches and two knife sheathes.

"Any reason why this looks more like a formal outfit and not like a battle suit?" Itachi asked, still stupefied by the colours.

Ino then looked saddened "They're supposed to look more like Hokage robes but… I guess I have to work on that."

"And to answer your question, it's to go with my new taijutsu style." Naruto said.

"You made a new taijutsu style?"

"Ino helped, it's a speedy, high attack power type that gets the job done right."

"Well, aside from your new style… You do know that this would not be acceptable for shinobi missions right?"

"I know because of all the bright colours and all, but, it was inspired by the Yondaime."

"How so?"

"He was called the 'Yellow Flash', and if I'm mistaken yellow is a very bright colour."

"True, but yellow was the last thing his enemies saw. The first thing your enemies will see is a rainbow coming down on them and then they will have time to defend themselves."

Naruto and Ino laughed. "You just watch, Aniki-san, you won't even see me when I start moving."

"We'll see about that." Itachi said as he flashed his Sharingan.

Itachi continued to walk down the tables when he stopped at Kiba's station.

"Kiba, what in the hell is that?"

Kiba was holding up a green spandex suit with orange leg warmers. "Um, this weird guy gave it to me and ran off."

"And where's your battle outfit?"

Kiba lifted up the spandex suit, "I didn't make one so I'm using this."

Inside Itachi's head, hundreds of chibi Itachi's were rolling around laughing their heads off. Itachi was glad that he added a high collar to his robe because a huge smile spread across his face. He had to support himself on the table because his legs were about to give out on him.

"Well, (giggle) good luck with _that."_ He said as he stumbled back to his desk and chair.

The whole class stared as Itachi fell off the chair, laughing like a crazed lunatic.

"Sasuke you have a weird brother." Sakura said.

"Meh, you get used to it over time."

_

* * *

_

_Time Skip: 1 month and a half later _

"Thank you parents for coming out." Iruka spoke into a microphone, "Today will be the presentations of your children's choreographed taijutsu demonstrations."

Many chairs were set up in training ground 16 and a large circle was drawn in front of them. Most of the seats were filled and there was much chatter from the parents.

"I'll ask you all to clam down now. Your children's presentations are mock battles only. I'm sure that they had thought out every move as to not hurt each other. Now that that's said let's begin!"

Loud cheers erupted from the crowd.

"The first battle is between…"

As so, the children presented their stuff as Iruka continued down the list. Quite frankly he was impressed yet unimpressed so far. The students had shown that they knew the basics of taijutsu but that was about all they showed. The battles basically consisted of a punch, defend, weak kick, defend and so on. Iruka (and the crowd) was glad that they finally reached Sasuke's name on the list. Apparently, everyone had high hopes for his battle, it was also the second last battle to take place today.

"Next, Uchiha Sasuke versus Kiba Inuzuka."

Sasuke stepped up to the circle but Kiba was no where to be found. The crowd started murmuring wondering where the "dog-boy" went. Suddenly a yell was heard.

"I'm not going out there, no way in hell!"

"Just go ya bastard!"

Kiba was then thrown into the circle and a dust cloud covered him. Once the cloud disappeared the crowd stared in shock. Kiba stood tall, although a little scared, as the sun gleamed off of his green suit.

"Oh my god…."

"He's _green_!"

"He's funny looking!"

Immediately, the crowd burst into laughter. Kiba slumped down and cried anime style.

"Look at that dork!"

"Orange and green together? EwWW!"

"Let's laugh harder!"

Even Iruka had a hard time keeping in his laughter as more and more fingers pointed at Kiba. And so, the laughing continued for a good ten minutes before Kiba stood up and ran away crying. The spandex squeaked with every step he took which caused the crowd to laugh even harder.

After a while, Iruka finally managed to stand up and reach the microphone, "Alright folks, let's calm down now. The final fight is between Ino Yamanaka and Uzamaki Naruto."

The crowd immediately shut up. Ino's father then stood up. "What's the meaning of this, Iruka? Why would you pair my daughter with that violent _boy?_"

"I'm sorry Yamanaka-san, but the names were picked out at random and it just so turns out that Ino was chosen to be Naruto's partner, now sit dow-"

"Naruto is not violent! You only say that because you don't see him for what he truly is!"

Mikoto had stood up and shouted at Ino's dad.

"How dare you speak to me like that!"

"Please, calm down folks!" Iruka yelled. "Yamanaka-san, I am on your side for this but the children must present today. So I would like it if you sat down and let them continue."

Ino's dad grudgingly sat down and mumbled under his breath. The crowd began talking again as Ino and Naruto stood in the circle, without their battle outfits. Ino then went up to Iruka and took the microphone out of his hand.

"Before we begin I'd like to say that each and every movement we make has been planned carefully. Our fight is more like a movie with violence and drama, so yes, there will be screams of pain and perhaps blood. Our fight is based on 'The Eye and The Phoenix' an epic battle between two evil ninjas who fought for dominance over the world but failed. We hope you enjoy, and thank you for listening. Iruka-sensei, under no conditions are you to stop our fight."

"_Geez, is it really going to be that bad that they have to warn us before hand?"_ Iruka thought.

Ino then rejoined Naruto in the circle. They both stood at opposite ends and stared at each other. "Shall we begin?" Naruto asked.

"Hai."

Both put their hands in a seal and shouted "Kai!"

Immediately, they disappeared in a puff of smoke. The crowd gasped thinking that they blew themselves up. Then the smoke cleared and the crowd gasped again. There stood Naruto and Ino, both in full battle gear. The crowd stared in awe at Ino's armour and was mystified by the colours on Naruto's kimono/robe. Iruka realized that their 'clothes' were just genjutsu and their battle gear was on the whole time.

"_I think we got their attention."_ Thought Naruto.

Both of them stood in standard attack poses, waiting for something. Suddenly a drum beat was heard and a shout rang out "MORTAL KOMBAT!"

"AAAGGHH!" Both Ino and Naruto charged towards each other as fast as they could.

The crowd stared as the first punch was made. Naruto's hand collided with Ino's open fist. She retaliated by trying an upper jab to his jaw. Naruto pulled away and tried to take out Ino's legs, but she was too fast. She hopped over his foot then jumped backwards, sliding once again into her stance. While Naruto was still in mid-kick, she brought her own leg up and sent it down towards Naruto's head. Seeing the danger, Naruto rolled away and got up, crouched on all fours.

"You are very good my arch rival!" he said, "But I must rule this world! I will kill any who stand in my path!"

Both children charged each other again this time attacking with a flurry of punches and kicks. The crowd was momentarily blinded each time the sun bounced off of Ino's armour and was nearly hypnotized by Naruto's flashing colours. Suddenly, a loud CLANG rang out and the two fighters stopped. Naruto's fist had painfully smashed into Ino's right arm armour. Some of the crowd who were ninja could tell that he broke a finger or two. Naruto and Ino jumped back from each other as Naruto held his broken fingers.

"Heh, that was unexpected, Ino. I never thought that I would have to use my secret style against you, but here goes." Naruto then began the hand seals for a very familiar jutsu.

**"_kaenhoushaki mogi no jutsu!" (flamethrower imitation)_**

He looked up and spat out several fireballs. "Get ready…" the fireballs fell around him and engulfed him in flame, "…for…" the flames then took the form of a large bird and Naruto stood at the base of it, arms outstretched with one foot in front of the other, "FALLEN PHEONIX STYLE!"

He ran with such speed that he disappeared, leaving behind a trail of flame. Ino had no time to defend herself as Naruto launched both his fists into her chest. She flew back a good ten feet before crashing to the ground. The crowd gasped and Naruto smirked, extinguishing his flames. Suddenly, Ino stood up slowly. Naruto looked at her in shock but quickly recovered,

"How? How can you still be alive after that? Any normal person would have died."

"Because, like you I also, hold a special power!" she said as blue chakra surrounded her.

"Prepare for my new style…" suddenly, the chakra turned into a giant closed eye. "EYE OF THE VALENTINE STYLE!" she screamed as the eye opened.

Naruto stood rooted to the ground, "It can't be!" he said, staring into an eye that held nothing, but everything at the same time.

"Scared are we? Don't worry you'll soon be dead!" She then ran towards Naruto and jumped. She curled her arms into her chest and pointed her feet down towards Naruto as she started spinning. Naruto was still mesmerized by the eye and did not see Ino coming down on him. Her feet connected with his ribs while still spinning, causing Naruto to scream loudly.

"Oh My God!" Iruka screamed as he attempted to save Naruto. However Itachi, blocked his way,

"They know what they're doing." He simply said.

Back at the battle, Naruto was launched painfully into a tree with a large bloody hole in his chest. Some of the spectators cried out when they realized that the wound was real.

Iruka shouted. "Ino stop! You'll kill him!"

Suddenly maniacal laughter rang out and a voice shouted "Kill who?"

Naruto was wide eyed and looked like a crazed demon. He got himself out of the tree and crouched down on the ground. "Bah, you think you can kill me with that attack, little miss princess?"

"I was just getting started." She said.

"Kukuku…" Naruto chuckled as he stood up. The hole in his chest suddenly began healing.

"Now I will show you my true power!" both shouted. They charged towards each other again, Ino had blue chakra surrounding her while Naruto got his flames back. Both pounded each other but their attacks were repelled by their chakra/flames. The crowd "ooo"ed and "aahh"ed at each collision. Each explosion created a large crater and sent a shock wave throughout the crowd.

"Let's end this!" Naruto shouted and he deactivated his flames.

Ino then dispelled her chakra and held out her fist. "One hit K.O.!"

Both charged each other and brought their fists into each other's faces. Both were thrown back by the impact and landed a few feet away from each other. The crowd looked with worry as both of the fighters hadn't moved yet. Suddenly, leaves and cherry blossoms rained down upon the two fighter's bodies.

"How could I fail?" Ino whispered.

"It seems we both fail this time." Naruto spoke.

"At least there's always the next life to fight." Ino said uncertainly.

"Yes… but, perhaps we should not fight next time. How about… we take a break from this chaos?"

Ino looked over to Naruto, "I'd like that." She said.

"Ino?"

"Yes?"

"In the next life, will you be my friend?"

"Yes, of course."

"See you in the next life then."

"See ya." Both closed their eyes and 'died'.

* * *

Some of the crowd broke down in tears. Others sat in shock at what happened. Suddenly, Ino and Naruto stood up and looked at the crowd, any injuries that Naruto had received where healed almost instantly.

"Thank you all for watching!" Ino said and took Naruto's hand and both of them bowed. "This has been an Ino/Naru presentation, we hope you enjoyed it."

Suddenly, the crowd stood up and began cheering. Naruto smiled, "They love us Ino! They really love us!"

The crowd then pushed into the circle and began shaking the hand of Ino, voicing their congratulations. Naruto had been trying to reach for someone's hand but was forcibly pushed away.

Ino's father then cut through the crowd, he walked up to the kids with tears in his eyes, "You were wonderful toady…" he then knelt down and hugged…

"…Naruto."

Everyone stopped, babies cried and Iruka faceplanted. Ino's dad noticed the silence and looked up.

"What?" he asked.

Iruka then recovered, "You're hugging that damned child that's what!"

He then looked at the person he was hugging, "Well, this isn't very proper of me now, is it?" he said as he stood up. He began dusting himself off; people around him thought that he was getting the 'demon' off of him. He then surprised everyone by holding out his hand. Even Naruto was surprised, but then shook hands nonetheless.

"(ahem) Very good work, kid. I could tell that took a lot of time to plan and rehearse. You are free to work with my daughter anytime you wish." He then lowered his head to Naruto's ear, "And… if you're ever looking for a wife…"

Naruto froze then blushed, "_I'm only 10 years old!_" he thought. "Um, thanks, I guess."

Ino's dad then stood up and searched the crowd for someone. "Ah, Mikoto-san! Would you mind terribly if I took Naruto out for dinner tonight, like an after-party, per say?"

Mikoto looked shocked "_Is this really the same man who was yelling at my son about ten minutes ago?"_ she then "Not at all, Yamanaka-san."

"Otou-san, " Ino said, "Itachi helped us with some of our illusions so he deserves some credit."

Ino and Naruto looked at Itachi who was looking rejected while shuffling his feet through the dirt.

"We can't have that now can we? Itachi!" Itachi immediately looked up, "Come, join us for dinner!"

"R-really? You w-want me t-to come with you?" Itachi said in chibi form.

"Of course, you helped my daughter so you deserve some sort of reward."

Itachi then jumped, "YATTA!" inside he thought _"Free food! Yay!"_

Ino's dad sweatdropped, "Okay… come, Naruto, Ino. We shall have a feast worthy of two great actors such as yourselves… and one stage crew guy (Itachi)." Then the four of them walked off.

Iruka still stood shocked that Ino's dad had changed his mind about Naruto so quickly. _"Dammit, looks like he's going to get the top student award again!"_ He then stormed off to his office to work on his student reports.

Then, Sasuke walked up beside Mikoto, "Where's Naruto going, Okaa-san?"

"He's going out to dinner with Ino's family, Sasuke-kun." Mikoto said, "He's become quite popular these days."

"Yeah…" Sasuke said uncertainly, _"He's becoming everything I want to be…it's just not fair!"_

TBC….

A/N: What's this? Sasuke is jealous? Oh, this can't be good for Naruto, whatever will happen? Find out next time on Naruto of the Uchiha Clan!

A/N: yeah… sorry this took so long to update I was facing severe writers block and rugby practice. Just to tell everyone my chapters will only be posted on Saturday or Sunday so that all you weekenders will have a chance to read it. I'm sorry if this chapter isn't very funny; I wanted to write another fight scene so I used this chap as one. Oh and um, pairings… hm… okay, r & r and then juts ask for a specific paring for Naruto and Sasuke. I'll tally up the votes and try to start the pairings in chapter 8 or 9. Voting will end after chapter 7 is posted.

Next time: The Academy Escapades Part 3: Survival of the Fittest


	6. The Academy Escapades p3

Welcome to another chapter of Naruto of the Uchiha Clan! I hope you're all prepared for Naruto and Sasuke's fourth year in the academy. This chapter includes very moving scenes that will enrapture your hearts and change the way you think about your family.

Now, with no further ado, let's begin!

**The Academy Escapades Part 3:**

**Survival of the Fittest**

The fresh mountain air is said to put most people into a calm trance-like state. Be it alone or with a friend, you can always expect a serene peace to enclose your mind, giving you the felling of freedom from responsibilities. Unfortunately, for a group of young children, they were unable to find even a second for peace or relaxation.

"Iruka-sensei! I'm tired, and I got blisters on my feet!"

"Gah! Bugs! Get 'em of! Get 'em off!"

"Wah! Some rabbit stole my chocolate bars!"

"Iru-"

"SHUT UP!" a very angry chuunin yelled.

All the children immediately silenced and stared with fear at their teacher. He was currently seething with anger and his face was extremely red, "Now, we are all going to climb this mountain and we are all going to _like_ it, right?"

"HAI!" the class shouted.

"Good, now get going, it'll still be a few days until we reach the summit."

A raven haired boy who was standing next to Iruka simply huffed and began walking again. Near the back of the group, a blonde boy tried to find the raven haired boy.

"What are you looking for Naruto-kun?" a blonde girl asked him.

The boy looked down and sighed, "My nii-san, he's acting funny lately and he won't talk to me at all." _"He's still the same as the other night."_

_Flashback_

"A camping trip?" Mikoto asked, looking at the papers in her hand.

"Yup, Iruka-sensei said that we'll be leaving Konoha for about three weeks for a survival

trip out in the wilderness." Said Naruto.

"So, can you sign it?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, okay, but we'll have to go and buy some stuff tomorrow, it seems like just a sleeping bag and tent won't do." Mikoto said as she signed the sheets.

"Yatta! Isn't this great Sasuke? The famous 'Double U Brothers' out to fend for themselves in the wild!"

Sasuke then looked down, "Yeah, I guess…"

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, tell me when dinner's ready." Sasuke said then left to his room.

Half an hour later, the Uchiha family was gathered around the table eating sushi, egg rolls and (of course) ramen. Itachi, who was surrounded in emoish cloud of self-despair, spoke up, "So, okaa-san tells me that you boys are going to go on a trip."

"Yeah, it gonna be fun, we'll go rock climbing, hunting and all sorts of stuff!" Naruto said between bowls of ramen.

"You do know that there are killer beasts, poison plants and other things that can kill you." Itachi said with a smirk on his face. "I've seen bugs that can eat a human down his bones and plants that squirt acid at whoever picks it. Are you sure that you're up for this?"

"Of course, with Sasuke by my side we'll be fine. Right Sasuke?"

"Hn, whatever."

Naruto then looked at Sasuke, trying to see into him, "Seriously, Sasuke, is something wrong?"

"NO- I mean, nothing's wrong _nii-_san."

Itachi then pulled a book out of his pocket, "As much as I like the concept of death, I don't think that I would like it if my own brothers were to die. Naruto, take this; it's a combination of all of my notes from the forests of Konoha. It includes stuff about what plants are edible and what not to do in there."

As Itachi reached across the table to give the book to Naruto, Sasuke's eye twitched slightly.

"Arigatou, Aniki-san, I'll make sure to read it tonight." He said as he flipped through the pages, "Hey… how _did_ you find out which plants were eatable?"

"Well, I had to go through quite a number of test subjects. You'd be surprised at how many kids will eat anything for money."

Naruto sweat dropped as he read the seventh page:

_Marijuana Leaf: definitely NOT edible in LARGE AMOUNTS! Tester slipped into instant coma, paid tester sum of 5 yen. _

Then the family, except Sasuke, began talking about the boy's previous achievements, Itachi noticing that Naruto's achievements outweighed Sasuke's slightly.

"…and then there was the time that Naruto pulled that cat out of the fallen wagon. Hey, Sasuke, when was the last time you saved a ca-"

"SHUT UP!" Sasuke yelled, hitting the table and sending his bowl of ramen to the floor.

The family stared in shock at Sasuke's outburst.

"Sasuke-"

"I'm going to bed." He said and then left.

Itachi then began eating again, "Jeez, who pissed in his ramen bowl?"

_End Flashback_

Naruto still thought about that night as he climbed the rock wall in front of him.

"_Why is he so angry? Was it something I did?"_

Once he reached the edge of the rock wall he looked over at the sky and noticed that it was getting dark. "Iruka-sensei, we should set up camp, it's getting dark."

Iruka pretended to not hear Naruto, "Okay, kids, I think we should set up camp as its getting dark."

* * *

At the Hokage Tower…

"You called for me, Hokage-sama?"

The Hokage looked up, "Ah, Itachi, well, we've received reports of some bandits around the west side of Konoha. I'm giving this to you as a B-rank mission because their leader appears to be an ex-ninja of the Rock village."

"The west side… isn't that where…"

"Yes, Iruka and his students are there on their camping trip. That is why I want you to leave immediately. Take out the bandits as soon as possible."

"Hai!" Itachi then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

* * *

Naruto had set up his tent while others tried to make their tent closer to his, especially some of the girls. Iruka noticed this and yelled. "Boys and girls on different sides of my tent! NOW!"

Once the group set up their tents, they gathered around a large fire. They ate burgers that someone brought and snacked on sugar cookies. Most of the students were gathered around Naruto, asking him questions or just to have a good laugh. Suddenly one kid asked a question: "Why do you guys want to become shinobi?"

"I want to have a job that's exciting and offers adventure. I don't want to end up working in my mom's flower shop." Ino said.

"I want to become stronger than anyone in my family." Kiba announced.

"I'm doing this for my family…" Naruto said.

"Huh?"

"You don't want to be a ninja you're just doing this to make your family happy, right?"

"No, that's not it. It's just that, I didn't have a family until the Uchiha's adopted me. Now I have someone who can acknowledge me for my accomplishments. Whenever I do something in school I think about otou-san, okaa-san, Aniki-san and Sasuke-nii-san. They are my inspiration and the power that drives me to do so well in the academy."

"Wow, that's deep, man, real deep." Shino said.

"Speaking of which, where is Sasuke?" Kiba asked.

"He's been avoiding me for a while, I don't know why though."

"I'm sure he'll come around, he a cool guy and all, but not as cool as you are, Naruto-kun." Ino said.

Suddenly, a snap was heard followed by rushed footsteps. "What was that?" Shino asked.

"Probably a bear or something." Naruto said.

"No, it was Sasuke." Kiba said. "I could smell him."

"_First he avoids me and now he's stalking me, what's going on?"_

As the next two weeks progressed, the group continued on with their journey. Sasuke still hadn't talked to Naruto and it was worrying him a lot. Whenever he would try to talk to Sasuke he would run off or start talking to someone else. It was making him angry sometimes, but he knew that if he wanted to talk to Sasuke, he would have to talk with concern and not anger. _"I'll talk to him tonight then." _Naruto thought after the fourteenth day.

That night however, Iruka had called Sasuke to do some jobs around the camp site and to go gather food. So talking with Sasuke tonight was out of the question. After Naruto ate he immediately went to his tent and fell asleep.

* * *

Itachi was running full pace now, he had left a bushin to watch over Iruka's group but when it suddenly disappeared, he began to worry.

"Kuso, I just _had _to go and 'scout the area'. If Hokage-sama finds out about this, I'm dead."

Itachi activated his Sharingan and he copied the steps that Iruka's group left behind. He had just come up to a cliff face when he heard voices. He stopped and jumped into the cover of the trees.

"…listen, it's a bunch of kids who are basically pretending to be ninja. They'll be easy to rob. Even if they do have a chuunin with them." A man wearing a hoodie and cargo pants said. A slashed forehead protector of the Rock village was tied around his arm.

"Yeah, Boss, and with kids they always have some good food with them." Bandit one said. He wore a large axe on his back and slouched terribly.

Bandit two then spoke up, "They might have dango! Oh how long it's been since I had dango!" he began salivating as he spun his twin sai between his fingers.

"Shut up!" both men silenced themselves, "I sense someone." He placed his hand on the ground and made some discrete hand signals.

Bandit one nodded and walked up to the tree Itachi was in. With a flash of speed, he grabbed his axe and felled the tree in one swipe. Itachi had no choice but to jump and give away his cover.

"Huh, some ninja you are." Said the Boss.

"You must be very skilled to be able to hear heartbeats through the ground." Itachi said.

"You have no idea how powerful I am, kid."

Itachi then glared at the man as his anger took control, _"Nobody calls me 'kid' and gets away with it!"_

"You're going to regret ever calling me a good for nothing kid!" he shouted

"Indeed, well, since I'm bored of your voice already, I'm just gonna kill you. Hiretsu, you go first."

"Gladly." Bandit two, now known as Hiretsu said as he charged towards Itachi.

"Hm, too predictable." Itachi said as his Sharingan began spinning slowly.

He pulled out his katana with the sheath still on it. As Hiretsu came forward, Itachi side stepped, letting the man run past him. Hiretsu spun around and headed for another head-on attack. This time, Itachi held his sword up and swiftly brought it down on Hiretsu's spine, cracking it cleanly in two.

The Boss growled and motioned for bandit one to fight, "You know what to do, Gama-feisu."

"Hai, Boss."

With one hand, Gama-feisu swung his axe down on Itachi. Itachi then hopped back and lunged at his opponent with his still sheathed katana. Using a surprising amount of speed, Gama-feisu then used his free hand to punch Itachi. Itachi bent backwards and pulled himself into a one handed hand stand.

"Quit moving, worm!" Gama-feisu yelled in a deep voice as he attempted to head butt Itachi.

With, Itachi's other hand other hand he drew a kunai and flicked it into Gama-feisu's throat

"Gahhhgggggg…" Gama-feisu gripped his neck to try and get the kunai out but it was too late, he fell over dead.

"It seems that your accomplices won't lives to serve you any longer. I am Itachi Uchiha, and I will take you into custody dead or alive!" Itachi said.

"(sigh) Very well, I guess I'm the only one left." The boss said as he pulled out a gauntlet from his hoodie pocket. "Prepare to die!"

_

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes, there, right in front of him was Sasuke. Naruto smiled but then noticed that Sasuke was holding out two kunai. He took a step back but Sasuke disappeared. Instantly, Naruto was covered in long painful scratches and Sasuke reappeared in front of him, the kunai were dripping blood._

"_Why Sasuke?"_

"_You have the nerve to ask me why? I'll tell you 'why' it's because you stole everything from me, my okaa-san, my otou-san and even Itachi-aniki-san. Ever since you came, you've been the favourite child, everyone wants a little piece of Naruto! Now you will die at my hands and I will be the prized child!"_

_Sasuke raised the two kunai and stabbed them into Naruto's heart._

"_Why…" _

Naruto woke with a start, holding his heart making sure nothing was stabbed into it.

"Just a dream, it's just a dream." Suddenly, he heard a noise in the forest. He grabbed his kunai and looked outside the tent. There he saw a shadow run into the bushes, he couldn't make out who it was but the symbol on his back gave him away immediately. It was the Uchiha fan.

Before Naruto could shout, Sasuke ran into the foliage and continued running. Naruto cursed as he put on his sandals and ran after Sasuke. Although Naruto had more stamina than Sasuke he still wasn't as fast as him. It took a while to catch up to Sasuke and Naruto finally found him near the edge of the cliff they climbed earlier.

Naruto then spoke "Sasuke what-"

"Naruto, " Sasuke said, cutting off Naruto, "Do you think if I jump, right here, right now… do you think people will notice?"

"Nani! Of course they'll notice! It's like a fifty foot drop, your blood will be everywhere and-"

"No, I mean, do you think they will remember me when I'm gone?" Sasuke said sullenly.

"Well, yeah, okaa-san will be sad that her son is gone and otou-san will become depressed and everything."

"Now, if we die together, who do you think they will remember more?"

Naruto sighed, "Me…"

Sasuke dropped his shoulders, "I knew you would say th-"

"Aw, hell, my death wouldn't even be 'remembered' it would be celebrated."

Sasuke's eye twitched, "Naruto, now you're just being egotistic."

"They always hated me and would celebrate the fact that I'm dead. And you? They'll probably think that you killed me in a valiant fight and you would have your face up on the Hokage monument."

"_I was not expecting this…"_ Sasuke thought, "What the hell are you talking about? Everyone _loves _the great Naruto Uzamaki. Me, I'm just his lowly sidekick who's always second best."

Suddenly everything fit together, "You're jealous aren't you?" Naruto asked.

"Jealous? Hell, I'm green with bloody envy! Ever since you came into my family you've been getting the royal treatment, even from the other Uchiha's." Sasuke then reached into his kunai pouch…

Naruto remembered his dream and held his hands up in defense. However what Sasuke pulled out surprised him. It was a picture of his family, before Naruto came.

"I had everything I wanted, I even went so far as to do the village some good and become their hero. But then you came and my life went downhill from there." He threw the picture at Naruto, who caught it before the wind did.

The picture showed Sasuke, Itachi, Mikoto and Fugaku sitting at their lake. Naruto then noticed that there were large blotches on the picture which meant that Sasuke's tears had fallen a few times on it. Naruto then remembered what he said to his friends a few nights back, _"My family is my inspiration that drives me to do so well at the academy."_

Naruto then sighed, "Gomen, Sasuke…"

Sasuke then looked up "Nani?"

"I wanted to be the best so that okaa-san and otou-san would be proud of me. I strived for the best to show that I was grateful to them for taking me in. I never realized that I was slowly pushing you out of the picture. Forgive me."

Sasuke then stared at Naruto "The other night, when you said that your family was your inspiration, did you mean me as well?"

"Of course, you're the one who brought me into the Uchiha clan! It's because of you that I got a new chance to live at least partially away from those who hated me. And now, I'm surrounded by people who actually like me! Sasuke, by taking me in, you saved my life! I owe you my life so many times over."

Sasuke smiled, "Naruto, you definitely have some sort of power that cheers people up."

Naruto then stepped up to the edge of the cliff, "So, were you really going to jump?"

"Hell, no! The only way I'd jump off _that_ is if there's water at the bottom. Then again, I can't swim that well either." Sasuke said with a laugh. "But, someday, I will be the best swimmer EVER!" Sasuke yelled as he struck the Good Guy pose.

"There's the Sasuke everyone knows and loves!" Naruto said, "C'mon, let's go back to camp and see if we can swipe some of Iruka-sensei's chocolates."

"I'm in for that, nii-san!"

They began walking into the forest when suddenly… _RRRUMMMMBLE! CRASH!_

"What the hell was that?" Sasuke asked, both boys then ran back to the cliff edge and looked over.

* * *

Itachi was getting tired, his legs were bleeding and his katana arm had been previously dislocated. He managed to pop it back in place but pinched an artery and now every move he made sent spikes of pain throughout his shoulder and neck. His opponent had managed to get around Itachi by using and canceling jutsu so quickly that his Sharingan was getting confused. The Boss also never made eye contact with him so it was impossible to trap him in a genjutsu. He was low on energy and now only used his chakra to enhance his movements.

"Aww, is the little jounin getting tired?" (remember Itachi is 16 year old, which is still young)

"Not as tired as you'd like me to be." Itachi said.

"Well, we'll just have to fix that now."

The Boss then created six kage bunshin (shadow clones) and charged towards Itachi, all eyes were on the ground. Itachi readied his sword and struck the first one. However, two jumped Itachi from behind and threw him towards the cliff face. The remaining three then used high level taijutsu to back Itachi into the wall. Suddenly, the clone exploded and caused a large smoke screen. From out of nowhere, a voice shouted,

"_Doton: mushashgyou!_"(1)

"_Shit, dammit, shit!"_ Itachi thought as he made to dodge the attack. The Boss's gauntlet had quadrupled in size and was rushing towards Itachi. Using his last bit of chakra, Itachi jumped back onto the wall, stuck for a second, and then propelled himself as hard as he could off of it. The damage done to the cliff was devastating. The gauntlet had drilled a hole through the cliff that had weakened the bottom of it. While Itachi was still airborne, he noticed two heads looking over the cliff's edge, one blonde and one black.

"Get out of the way!" Itachi yelled as loud as he could.

* * *

The boys looked over the cliff and saw that, directly below them, the area was completely hollowed out. And still more rocks were falling. They then noticed a figure shoot into the sky; they tried to identify who it was when it shouted, "Get out of the way!"

"What does he mean by that?" Sasuke asked.

CRACK! The boys looked behind then and noticed a large crack in the ground. Both boys did not know what to do at the moment but then the piece of earth that they were standing on began to dip downwards.

"Sasuke, move!" Naruto pushed Sasuke's back and sent him flying over to the safe side, while Naruto continued to fall.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled as he watched his brother disappear. He ran to the edge and looked over, hoping to see Naruto. Large clouds of dirt filled his vision and the rock face continued to crumble little by little. In desperation, he activated his Sharingan, which now had one tomoe in one eye and two in the other. His eyes slowed down the movement of the dust and he was able to see through it.

"Where are you…?" Sasuke muttered, "(gasp) There!"

Twenty feet blow Sasuke, Naruto was barely holding on to a small clump of dirt that was slowly crumbling under his grip.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, "Nii-san, help me!"

Thinking quickly, Sasuke stabbed a kunai into the ground and tied his wire into the loop at the other end of it. Once he tied the other end around a harness on his belt, he slowly lowered himself down to Naruto's position. There was about a foot and a half of space left between them when Sasuke noticed that he ran out of wire.

"_Kuso, what the hell did I use a whole roll of wire for?" _Sasuke wondered. _"Well, time for plan B."_

Sasuke then removed the wire from his belt and began to tie it on his ankle. "_This is gonna hurt later. Wire isn't meant to be used as rope!"_

Now, Sasuke could just almost reach Naruto with both his hands outstretched. "Naruto, you'll have to jump up to me."

"S-sure, but I think that I've only got one chance." Naruto said as more dirt crumbled away. He then dug his feet into the wall to give him more of a boost and prepared to jump.

"Okay, on the count of three!"

"One…"

"Two…" Naruto's hand then slowly let go…

"THREE!"

Naruto hopped up a mere few centimeters. His left hand just missed Sasuke's right but his other hand had grabbed Sasuke's fingers. Sasuke gave a grunt of pain when the extra weight that was Naruto suddenly tightened the wire around his ankle. Temporarily ignoring the pain, Sasuke then reached out with his free hand and grabbed Naruto's wrist.

"Naruto, listen carefully, I want you to climb to the top now and pull me up after you."

"H-hai." Naruto said, he was still shaken up about almost falling to his death.

Using the wire to help him, Naruto slowly climbed the wall. But before he started he noticed that Sasuke's leg was dripping blood.

"_The wire must be cutting into his skin…"_ Naruto thought.

"Oi! Naruto, hurry up. If you haven't noticed, I'm bleeding here!" Sasuke yelled.

Climbing as fast as he could, Naruto reached the edge and pulled himself up. He felt a tug on the wire he was still holding and began pulling Sasuke up. _"Hold on nii-san, you saved my life again, and I won't let you down!" _Naruto thought.

Finally, both boys were up on the top and completely safe.

"Whew! It's a good thing were completely safe now, eh Sasuke?"

...or so they thought…

"Well, well, well, I come up here looking for my gauntlet but instead I find two helpless cadets! How lucky!"

Both boys looked behind them to see a man wearing a hoodie and cargo pants. "You boys had better cough up your goods if you know what's good for you!" he said.

"We're not giving you anything!" Sasuke yelled.

"Yeah! You'll just have to fight us!" Naruto yelled.

"Suit yourselves, prepare to die! I am The Boss, and no one has yet defeated me, not even that damned Sharingan user, Itachi!"

Sasuke gasped, "What did you do to Itachi?"

"Oh, I left him for dead; he probably impaled himself on a tree branch and is just hanging there, waiting for death to overcome him."

"You bastard!" Sasuke yelled and attempted to charge The Boss but Naruto grabbed him.

"Sasuke, stop, he's my brother too; we'll fight this guy together!"

"You're right, we fight together, because we're…"

(both together) "THE FAMOUS DOUBLE U BROTHERS! Prepare for an ass kickin'!"

"Well, bring it on then!" The Boss said.

"CHARGE!" both boys ran head first towards the missing-nin.

Suddenly… WWWWHHHZZZ! WWWWHZZZ! WWWHHHHZZZ! CLUNK! CLUNK! CLUNK!

"What the hell?"

Three kunai embedded themselves in The Boss's head, heart and stomach. He still stood dumfounded for a second then fell over. Both boys looked behind them and saw Itachi struggling over the edge of the cliff. "How's about a little help?" he asked.

Both Sasuke and Naruto then pulled Itachi up over the edge of the cliff. "What are you doing here Itachi?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, I came to see my brothers of course!" Itachi said with a smile.

"Really?"

"No." both boys faceplanted.

"Then why were you here?"

"I came for that guy and his band." Itachi pointed to the dead Boss, "I was sent to stop him because he was robbing some people around here."

"How come no one told us? Our class was in danger this whole time!" Sasuke yelled.

"Don't worry little nii-san, I was watching over the whole time making sure he didn't try anything funny. Now get back to your camp, it's almost sunup and I don't think Iruka will be pleased that his top two students were sneaking around at night."

"Yeah I guess you're right, Aniki." Naruto said, "C'mon Sasuke, let's go back."

"Sure."

After saying goodbye to Itachi, the boys then went back to camp. Itachi then walked towards the dead body of The Boss and knelt down.

"I told you that you'd regret calling a kid!" he said as he carried the body away.

Luckily for Naruto and Sasuke, Iruka hadn't wakened up yet and the boys were able to sneak into their tents easily.

"_Now that Sasuke's happy, this trip should be even better!" _Naruto thought.

* * *

The next week passed by with many fun times. The campers had found a tall cliff overlooking a lake. Kiba had then suggested a diving contest and something he called 'Fall Racing'. Simply put, two people would jump off and see who would hit the water the fastest. Everyone had fun, including Sasuke, who won the diving contest hands down.

Sometimes, Iruka would set up obstacles for everyone and they would have to get through them as fast as possible. Everyone's favourite was the tree jumping. By gathering small amounts of chakra to their feet (and in Kiba and Naruto's case, their hands since they ran on all fours) they were able to run along branches and jump far distances. This was especially fun playing tag or man-hunt in the night as some kids would smash themselves into trees.

Once the trip ended, the students went back to the academy for their parents to pick them up.

"That was the best trip ever!" Ino shouted.

"I hope we do one next year. That would be awesome!" Kiba said.

"And the best thing is, there's only one month left of this year!" Naruto said.

"Only one month left?" Shino asked, "YOSH! Party at my house then!"

"Who do you think will be students of the year?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, it's obviously, Naruto-kun!" Ino said as she hugged Naruto.

Iruka then approached the kids, "Actually, this year, it's Sasuke."

"NANI!" The kids screamed and Ino dropped Naruto on his head.

"On the camping trip, Sasuke helped out the most while most of you were just goofing off. So, because of Sasuke's helpfulness, he wins students of the year this year."

Naruto then ran up to Sasuke and put him in a head lock, "See, Sasuke? You did all that complaining and jealous stuff for nothing! You proved that you really are the Awesome Blue Beast of Konoha!"

Sasuke was excited but at the same time, he was quickly running out of air, "Uugg, c-can't breathe!"

Suddenly, the classroom door opened and a small girl entered while bowing. "Ano… I'm here for Iruka-sensei's class. I'm the new student."

Kiba looked at the girl strangely, "You're kinda late to be joining a class, ya know?"

"Thanks for stating the obvious, baka." The girl said as she raised her head. The kids gasped when they looked into her eyes.

TBC….

* * *

Well, I hoped you enjoyed that, to be honest, it's not my best chapter because I was sick while writing this. If I can I will rewrite this soon. Anyways, next chapter will be the final chapter in the Academy Escapades. Naruto and Sasuke will be hard pressed to pass for if they don't… well, let's just say, that bad things will come about. And who's the new girl? And what does she want with Naruto? Find out next time. Ja ne.

(1) Earth element: samurai drill

btw, I have exams coming up so the next chapter might come out like, three weeks from now, if not later.

Keep voting for pairings! (sorry, but I will not do a hina/naru because it is too common)


	7. The Academy Escapades p4

Woot! 80 reviews! And only one of them was criticism and picking out my flaws! Of, course, I have no flaws (being perfect and all). My goal for now is to get to 100 reviews. Anyways, on to the next chapter! New characters will be introduced new friendships will be made and a conspiracy unfolds!

**The Academy Escapades Part 4**

The fourth and final year of the ninja academy couldn't have been any weirder. For one thing, there was an increasing amount of new students and all of them seemed to come from very significant ninja families, thus pressuring the school to perform at its best. Iruka now had to deal with double the amount of students that he had the previous year. At first he felt up to the job but lately, he had been seen dragging himself around Konoha half dead because of exhaustion.

"It's just too much!" Iruka whined while lying on the floor of the teachers lounge after school ended. "It's nearing the end of the year and they just keep getting worse and worse!"

"C'mon, Iruka, they're just kids. How bad can it be?" said a white haired teacher named Mizuki.

"How bad can it be?" Iruka repeated, "Hell, before this year even started, I was having trouble with one of the new girls."

_Flashback…_

Suddenly, the classroom door opened and a small girl entered while bowing, "Ano… I'm here for Iruka sensei's class. I'm the new student."

Kiba looked at the girl strangely, "You're kinda late to be joining a class, ya know?"

"Thanks for stating the obvious, baka." The girl said as she raised her head. The kids gasped when they looked into her eyes. They were dark red eyes that spelt doom to whoever looked into them.

"Woah! Dude, she's like a red eyed freak!" Shino shouted.

The girl closed her fists in anger.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that those are eyes only a mother love!" Kiba said as he laughed.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" the girl shouted. She raised her hands in a seal and shouted, "_Nousaibou nenshou no jutsu!_"(1)

A spear of chakra erupted from the girl's hands and shot Kiba in between the eyes. He froze for a minute, then another and another. The other kids stared at him before they realized that his ears were bleeding and he was drooling uncontrollably.

"Kiba!" the class yelled as they tried to get his attention.

"Who the hell are you?" Ino shouted when she pointed to the girl.

"I am Yuuhi- I mean, Yumi Karin! But you will refer to me as Karin-sama!" Karin said while standing triumphantly.

_End flashback…_

"That girl's genjutsu was so powerful it left Kiba in a coma for half the summer!" Iruka said.

"Well that's sure interesting. What about your other students?" Mizuki asked.

"Well, some of them have powers I never would have believed existed. The first one is this emotionally unstable fat kid…"

_At that exact moment outside the school…_

"I'M NOT FAT!" yelled an obviously fat boy.

"Well if I say you're fat, then you're fat and that's that!" Karin said as she chuckled at her own rhyme.

"Why you… I'll kill you!" The fat boy was about to charge when two other boys grabbed him, one with blonde hair and the other with black.

"Choji, don't do it! It's not worth the trouble." Naruto said.

"Yes, Choji, remember to respect your fellow comrades!" Sasuke yelled.

"Choji, you're so troublesome." A voice said from out of nowhere.

The three boys and one girl froze at the sound of the voice and turned towards an alley way. Standing in the shadows was a tall boy who wore all black and was half covered by the shadows.

"Are you really going to let some egomaniacal girl get the better of you? I thought you had more balls than that." The mysterious boy said as he stepped out from the shadows. He was wearing a large trench coat that seemed to sway back and forth even though there was no wind. He had black jeans and a grey vest that he wore over a fishnet shirt. His face displayed pure laziness but at the same time irritation, like he was doing something that he didn't want to do.

Choji was released from Naruto and Sasuke's grasp and he knelt down in front of the boy. "I'm sorry, Shikamaru. I know you've been teaching me to control my emotions but it's just hard with _her_ around here." Choji said as he glared at Karin.

"No, Choji, it's not her fault. She merely says the words but you react in a harsh way to them. You only have yourself to blame!" Shikamaru said.

"Shikamaru! Stop it, you're too hard on Choji!" a female voice said. A girl was standing outside the front door of the academy glaring at Shikamaru. The girl had blue hair and lavender, pupil-less eyes

"(sigh) Hinata, you'll never understand how the inner workings of Choji work. He gives into emotions too easily, although his anger could be used as a weapon it could also backfire on him and get him killed."

Hinata walked up to Shikamaru are stared into his eyes, "At least let him keep some of his original personality before you turn him into an emotionless drone!"

Shikamaru stared at Hinata with a smirk, "Look at you, Hinata, you try to stand up for your friends but really you're embarrassed to do so. You may have guts, I'll admit that, but you're just too much of a weakling to do anything. I bet that deep down, you also see Choji as the fat boy he is."

Shikamaru barely had time to blink before Hinata's fingers jabbed him in the neck, hard. "Try talking big when your secondary air pipes are blocked. In fact, try talking at all!" she said before she stomped off.

"Tch, troub-(gasp!)" sure enough, Shikamaru could no longer speak and only emitted short gasps or wheezes. _"Aw, great, now I can't speak. This is so troublesome."_ Shikamaru then preformed a seal and melted into the shadows. Choji quickly stood up and ran to where he thought the shadow was heading.

"Well that takes care of one problem." Said Naruto.

Sasuke, however, pointed an accusing finger at Karin. "If I ever find you bullying another classmate, I'll report you to Iruka-sensei!"

"Oh me, oh my! What ever shall I do? I'm just quaking with fear!" Karin said sarcastically while laughing and walking away. She then turned around and yelled, "Naruto-kun! Wanna go on a date?"

Naruto was about to answer 'No' but a figure jumped out from the trees and landed in front of Naruto. The person flicked their wrists and two fifteen inch blades appeared from under the person's sleeves.

"You leave Naruto-kun alone, you wench!" shouted an enraged Ino as she stood in an attacking pose.

"The bitch returns to claim her precious, ah well. Byyyeee, Naruto-kun." Karin blew a kiss towards Naruto and walked away. Ino flicked her Katar/Qatar blades so that they came back into her wrist guards.

"Grrr. That Karin, she thinks she owns everything! This is the tenth time she's asked you out. C'mon, Naruto, you're taking me shopping!" Ino then pulled Naruto by the wrist towards the market.

"I'll tell Okaa-san that you'll be home late!" Sasuke yelled after them. "Well I got some free time now. Hmm, what to do?" Sasuke then pulled out his blue cape with the Uchiha symbol on it and quickly tied it around his neck, he flicked up a hood that covered his hair and eyes, "It's time to clean up evil, Sasuke style! Blue Beast of Konoha… awaaaaayyyyyyyy!"

* * *

Walking into the classroom, Iruka knew that he was going to regret giving the kids their next assignment. So many things could go wrong. And by wrong he means that he would be giving that Uzumaki kid another chance to show off his skills. 

"_There must be something I can do to minimize his chance of success."_ Iruka thought.

After their lunch break, Iruka led the class out to a training area. The students could see a dark ditch that extended a very long distance. In front of them was a ladder that led to three zip-lines.

"Here you will use what skills you have to complete this mile long obstacle course. Use whatever weapons or jutsus need. And just to make this more difficult, you will need to collect ten flags that have been placed around the course. Some will be easy to find, others, not so much. You must collect only the colour of flag assigned to you. If you pick someone else's you will be counted as cheating and disqualified. You have no time limit but I suggest that you go as fast as possible, this course has some timed obstacles that may activate before you reach them. We'll begin at the top of the list with Aburame Shino, you will have to get the yellow flags."

"Dude, this is gonna ROCK!" Shino said as he climbed a ladder.

Once he got to the top, he heard small clicking noises. He looked down and saw two rows of automatic kunai launchers. Instead of holding onto the zip-line handle, Shino pulled himself on top of the ropes and placed his right foot in front of the left. Slowly but surely, Shino began sliding down the ropes on his feet. Suddenly, the kunai launchers clicked to life and began doing what they did best, launching kunai.

Thinking quickly, Shino jumped to the rope on his right and gained speed. By now hundreds of kunai were whizzing past Shino attempting to hit him. But he was too good to get hit. With a series of impressive flips, spins and occasional handstands, Shino was able to reach the end of the line and collect his first flag.

"Success in the first degree!" Shino shouted triumphantly. He then turned around and saw a pit of needles and large spikes. There were no ropes or even a rickety bridge to help him get across. "Bummer…" Shino said.

The rest of the students began taking their turns and, in their own way, collected their flags. Shikamaru used the shadows to travel through the entire course and get his flags.

Choji tucked into a ball and preformed his Sonic Dash attack (yes, just like from the Sonic games) and ripped through the field, stopping only to grab his flags. Sakura used the kawarimi technique to poof to her flags. Hinata used her Byakugan and amazing speed to get past everything and even deflect that large boulder attempting to crush her. Karin didn't use any ninjutsu or taijutsu to pass, thinking she was too good for the course. Instead, she merely walked through the entire thing taking her sweet time. Somehow she passed it but no one wanted to ask her how she did it. However, the real champions were just about to show.

"…Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka said.

"Finally!" Sasuke was about to climb the ladder but someone grabbed his wrist and then an odd clinking sound was heard.

"You will complete the course while chained to your little 'nii-san'." Iruka said with a smirk.

"Nani?" Naruto looked at his wrist and noticed a handcuff attached to his wrist, the chain attached to it led to Sasuke's wrist.

"You've got to be kidding me, Iruka-sensei." Sasuke said.

"Well, you two are the top students so it shouldn't be a problem. Now go before I disqualify you."

Naruto and Sasuke then climbed the ladder together and looked over the course.

"This will be our greatest challenge yet! Naruto-nii-san, let's do our best!" Sasuke shouted.

"For the Uchiha's!" Naruto shouted, as he and Sasuke each jumped onto a rope. They passed the first part easily with Sasuke copying Naruto's movements since he was more flexible. Little did they know that someone was watching them.

"Hmmm, that demon spit is better than I thought. This will make my job even harder." A female voice said while taking notes.

* * *

Back in the classroom, the kids were gathered around Naruto and Sasuke congratulating them. They had cut the fastest time in half and collected all their flags while still being chained together. The door opened and everyone stopped to see Karin running up to Naruto. 

"Naruto-kun! Congratulations on that course!" She screamed as she hugged him, "As a reward, I'll let you go out with me, okay?"

"How about 'No!'?" Naruto said as he softly pushed her away.

"(sniff) You're so mean!" Karin said as she ran away crying.

"She'll get over it." Ino said, "So, Naruto, how about that date we planned for tonight?"

"I got it all set up, don't worry."

* * *

It was indeed a dark night that night. No stars and no moon. "_This is just my kind of night._" Thought a white haired chuunin standing on the roof of the academy. 

A small sound behind him alerts him to someone's presence. "Did you get any new info?" he asked no one in particular.

"Yes, however, it is not much." a feminine voice said, "That child refuses to reveal himself in front of others; even when he's alone he won't show anything."

"We must be patient; we don't want to go rushing into things too quickly."

"I know that, I am jounin after all." The voice said. "Also, I was thinking, maybe we should let Iruka in on this. We all know he hates the boy as much as we do."

"No, Iruka could never bring harm to one of his students even if he does hate them. Besides, he will be our decoy incase we get caught. Remember, he's been caught by the hokage himself when he tried to make the demon fail. He will be one of the first suspects in the boy's disappearance."

"(sigh) Well, I'd be more comfortable if it weren't just the three of us, the boss included."

"Relax, my dear, once we complete our mission, we can safely escape to Him."

"Very well, then." The feminine voice said, _"I just hope I don't regret this later on."_ She thought as she jumped away.

* * *

"_Thirty minutes… Only thirty minutes left until lunch… Then I can get back to watching the clouds… Why can't Iruka-sensei make his lessons go by faster?"_ Shikamaru thought as he stared blankly at his teacher. 

His gaze was dropping slightly from sleep when he noticed something. There, one row in front of him was Karin. As usual, she wasn't paying attention to Iruka. Instead she was writing something down in a small red notebook.

"_She's probably drawing unicorns or something. But, knowing her, they'll probably be unicorns of hell. Tch, that's just like girls these days, why can't they be smart like m-"_ Shikamaru stopped his internal rant when he saw what Karin was writing, _"What the hell is this?"_

He leaned over his desk to get a closer look at the notebook. _"She can't be serious…"_ he thought as he read, _"'Naruto-baka has a tendency to pretend to be nice to others. Possible reasons: To gather allies for his army? Start a cult of suicide ninjas? What can he be up to? He is a great actor though, he pretends like he doesn't even know about the K-'"_

"Oi! Karin, will you stop writing love notes to your boyfriend up there?" Iruka shouted.

Karin turned around suddenly to see Shikamaru leaning over is desk reading her notes. Her eyes flashed fear for a split second before it turned to rage. She stuffed her notebook into one of her pockets and took out a rubber eraser.

"Gomen, Iruka-sensei, I didn't realize that someone was reading over my shoulder." Karin said innocently.

"Just consider yourself lucky that I don't read your notes out to the class. Now, please pay attention to this lesson. That goes for you too, Shikamaru."

"Hai, sensei." both Shikamaru and Karin said.

Karin then placed her eraser on her desk and charged her finger with chakra. She flicked it and watched as it bounced backwards off her books and smacked Shikamaru in the forehead, effectively knocking him out. No one seemed to notice though.

"_Looks like Shikamaru decided to fall asleep again."_ Choji thought as he saw his friend's head hit the desk.

* * *

"That concludes this lesson for today. Remember, your genin exams are next week! I expect you to study hard and practice all your jutsus." Iruka said as the students fled the classroom. 

Sasuke caught up to Naruto and gripped him in a head lock. "So, nii-san, ya think you're ready to take on the genin exams?"

"Of course Sasuke, but if you don't loosen your grip, I might not live to see tomorrow." Naruto said as he was quickly loosing air.

"Oops gomen, Naruto…"

"That's okay, C'mon, let's get home so we can spar with Itachi-san."

"Naruto, wait up!" a voice shouted.

"Huh?" Sasuke and Naruto turned around to see Shikamaru running towards them while holding his head.

"What do you want Shikamaru?" Naruto said he didn't particularly like Shikamaru because of what he was doing to Choji and some of his 'advice' was very questionable.

"I want to tell you something about Karin." Shikamaru replied.

"Forget I'm not going out with her!" Naruto said.

"No, it's not that, baka. Shikamaru said, "I saw her notebook and what I read surprised me a bit. It was about you."

"Let me guess, she thinks I'm a god among men and wants to get in my pants right?" Naruto said.

"Quite the opposite of that. It seems that the only reason she wants to go out with you is to learn more about some sort of secret. She thinks that you're making friends with everyone in order to build an army."

"Why would Naruto-nii-san want to build an army?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't care he you does, but I think that this girl has some serious problem with her. Or she may be working undercover. Either way, it's troublesome. But I think something big is about to happen that may involve you, Naruto. I've heard that many of the adults want you dead."

"No surprises there." Naruto muttered.

"Just stay on your toes, Naruto." Shikamaru said, "I don't normally say this but you're a good ninja and it would be a shame to loose you." He then made a hand seal and melted into the shadows while grumbling about a headache.

"Well that was weird." Naruto said, "Let's go home Sasuke."

"What do you think about Shikamaru's info?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't know yet. I don't trust him much but just the way he said that made it seem like he wasn't lying. Ah well, let's just go see if Itachi is home yet."

* * *

One week later… 

Four shadows streaked through the forest at high speeds towards their target. Suddenly they stopped and bent low to the ground.

"What's the situation Red?" the team leader said.

"Explosive notes, lots of them." One team member said, known as Red.

"Kuso, we only have five minutes left. Defuse them as fast as you can, Yellow."

"Sure thing Blue. White, give me a visual."

"Hai." White made a seal and her eyes glowed white. "Okay… we got three wires leading out from the trigger. One blue wire, one green and one red. The green is triggered to go off at the slightest touch. So the blue or red one is it. I can't see far enough and there's something blocking my view, my best guess would be to cut the blue wire but I'm not sure. Red, see what you can do."

"I don't need you telling me what to do." Red said but nonetheless scanned the area with her red eyes. "As I thought, there's a genjutsu covering the area. Give me a minute… Okay, White, I think you're correct about the blue wire but I think that we should cut the red one."

White gave one more check and said. "No, it's definitely the blue one, I'm sure of it this time."

"No, it's the red wire!"

"Blue wire!"

Yellow spoke up, "C'mon, we only got three minutes! Which one is it?"

"Red wire!"

"Blue wire!"

"Blue, what do you think?"

"I don't know!"

"Two minutes left! Which wire?"

"It's the red one!"

"The blue one!"

Yellow yelled in frustration and closed his eyes. He brought his kunai up and thrust down on one of the wires.

"No!" Red yelled.

The blue wire snapped and everyone tensed waiting to see what would happen next. Yellow still had his hands on the kunai and was frozen in place. Thirty seconds later, nothing happened. The entire team breathed a sigh of relief.

Yellow slumped down on the floor, "Explosive tags defused, Blue, go retrieve the target and let's get out of here."

"Roger that." Blue walked up to a small clearing past the now useless explosive tags and found a red firework. With a simple jutsu, he lit the fire work and shot it into the sky.

* * *

About a mile away, a brown haired chuunin saw a firework that exploded into a colorful mix of red, yellow, blue and white. He looked at his clip board and began checking off names. "Team 3, Uchiha Sasuke (blue), Yumi Karin (red) Hyuuga Hinata (white) and… Uzamaki Naruto (yellow) all pass the practical field test. Mizuki, go retrieve Team 3 and make sure they get some rest." Iruka said. 

"Sure thing, Iruka." Mizuki then jumped down into the forest carrying a survival pack for four people.

"_Damn that fox, he got past all those traps I set up! He passed the written test with75 percent and even won thetaijutsu tournament. (sigh) And the final test is to make a pair of bunshins. He'll definitely pass that. I guess it was written somewhere up in the heavens that he would become a shinobi."_ Iruka thought, _"I wish that something would happen to make that kid fail."_

* * *

Mizuki had to do a bit of searching before he found Team 3 in a large clearing. "Here you kids are!" he said happily, "Congratulations on passing the test." 

"It was easy Mizuki-sensei!" Naruto yelled. He was obviously exhausted and he had taken off his orange and black jacket.

"Well, if this was easy for you, then the final test should be a breeze! But remember, it's worth a big amount of your final marks so don't take it lightly, alright?" Mizuki said as he slapped Naruto on the back. For some reason, Karin began to smile with a wicked delight.

"C'mon put your jacket on and eat this." Mizuki then started handing out food rations to the four genin hopefuls.

After they ate, they were sent back to the academy to do their final test. The kids were called in one by one to do the test. After Shino walked out, he told everyone in line that the test was just to make a few bunshins. "Dude, ya just gotta do that and they give you this shiny thing." Shino said as he held out his headband, "Well, seeya I gotta find my otou-san."

The kids were all called in and came out with their new headbands. After Sasuke stepped out he wished Naruto good luck. "Thanks, Sasuke." Naruto's name was then called and he stepped into the room.

"Alright, Naruto, you know what to do, you have three tries."

Naruto put his hands in a seal and said "Bunshin!" a cloud of smoke appeared and quickly dispersed. Iruka was shocked to find only one Naruto standing there.

"So, do I pass?" Naruto asked.

"Um, Naruto, you didn't even make a clone." Iruka said.

"Nani?" Naruto looked around himself and didn't see anything at all. "Okay, my mistake, one more try. BUNSHIN!" More smoke appeared and still no clones were seen.

Naruto began to panic, he summoned as much chakra as he could and focused it into his seal, "**BUNSHIN!"** he yelled. The entire room was covered in heavy smoke.

After the smoke cleared, Naruto looked around and saw only Iruka and Mizuki behind their desk, no clone was present.

"_NO!" _Naruto mentally yelled. "Bunshin!" more smoke still nothing, "Bunshin! Bunshin! Bunshin! Bunshin!" still nothing happened.

"Naruto stop!" Iruka yelled. He could feel the raw chakra coming from Naruto, which surprised him. With that much chakra, he should have been able to create thousands of clones yet, none ever appeared. However, if Naruto continued to build up his chakra it would severely harm him, "Naruto please stop!" Iruka jumped form his seat and pulled Naruto's hands apart.

Naruto's chakra level slowly receded but he was still whispering "Bunshin" every two seconds. He fell to the floor and started crying. "I failed them. Otou-san, okaa-san, Itachi and Sasuke-nii-san, I'm sorry… I'm sorry for failing you." He looked up at Iruka's face, "Iruka-sensei what did I do wrong?" he asked.

Iruka couldn't help but feel pity for the boy. He let go of Naruto's arms and let the boy cry. In his mind he added up Naruto's marks. Since he failed the final part, his mark was dropped to a 61 percent. The required mark for passing was at least 70. He should feel happy that Naruto was unable to pass but all he felt was sadness. His next words barely came out in a whisper, "I'm sorry Naruto, you…fail."

To Be Continued….

What happened to Naruto? How was he unable to make a bunshin? What will happen next? Wait around to find out.

* * *

A/N: Sorry to leave a cliff hanger but I need time to do my exams and such. I assure you that the next chapter will come out later this week. 

Jutsu list:

(1) Brain cell combustion technique: pretty self-explanatory right? Doesn't really do internal damage but make the body react like the damage was taken in full force.

plz continue to vote for pairings for Naruto and Sasuke (remeber no yaoi, naru/hina or naru/saku) also vote for other recmomended pairings.


	8. The Academy Escapades p5

Part 2 of the final part of the Academy Escapades! Enjoy.

**The Academy Escapades Part 5**

**Failure is NOT an Option**

"_I'm sorry Naruto, you…fail." _

After he failed the genin exam, he ran as fast as he could out of the academy. His tears blurring his eyes, he ran as fast as he could avoiding the questions that came from his friends that were now far behind him. He ran into the forests outside of Konoha and tried to loose himself. He didn't exactly know why he ran but he knew that he had to escape the guilt that was building up inside him. With every step he took, he could see one of his family members smile and give him a compliment then he would hear those words again "You fail… you fail… you fail."

Instantly, the persons' image would change, the face would contort into rage, point an accusing finger at him and shout, "You fail!" over and over again.

"I failed them, I failed all the Uchihas. They all treated me like I was actually someone."

Naruto remembered Fugaku talking to him one day. _"If you want to repay our kindness, don't do such small things like laundry or cooking. You should become a ninja and protect those who are important to you. Remember to study hard and one day you'll become a full fledged ninja."_

After falling over exhausted, Naruto pulled himself under a low tree and sat down. He looked at the sky and noticed that the sun was almost setting, although it was still pretty hot outside. He was completely covered in sweat so he took his jacket off. When he was removing his jacket, he felt something else on his back. Naruto reached behind him and pulled off a loose piece of paper that stuck to his shirt. On the paper was a kanji for 'Seal'

"What on earth? How did this get here?" Naruto asked. He turned the paper over and a small note was written on it.

'_If you want a _real_ challenge, go to training area 2 at midnight. Read this out loud 'Kai''_

Naruto stared at the note, "Kai?" he muttered, instantly, the paper burned to a crisp and Naruto felt a strange flow of power inside his body. Any ninja who woke up from a hard day of training would know what this feeling was. "Chakra!" Naruto shouted.

He put his hands in a seal and shouted "Bunshin!" instantly, twelve perfect clones appeared. "Yosh! Now I'll show them all!" Naruto said. He then ran full speed back to the academy. "Otou-san, oka-san, Itachi and Sasuke-nii-san, I'll become a ninja of Konoha and then you won't be upset with me."

* * *

Back at the academy, Iruka was panicking. "Where is he?" he said.

"Iruka, you shouldn't stress yourself out like that. Besides, you never liked him anyway, what's with the sudden change?" Mizuki asked.

Iruka sighed, "Of course I hate the boy, but he's still a student of mine and he went missing while under my supervision. So if something happens to him, I'll be the one to blame. And…"

"And what?" Mizuki asked.

"Well, I know this sounds stupid but I feel like it's my fault that he ran away. When I told him that he failed I looked into his eyes. His eyes were so full of sadness all ready but when I told him, it looked like he just died on the inside."

Mizuki could suddenly hear a small sound of quick footsteps in the hallway, "Hmm, Iruka, I think you should take a break and go home." Mizuki said, "If you start to read the demon kid's emotions then that means that you might eventually care for the brat. And heaven forbid that should ever happen."

"Yeah I guess you're right. That kid only spells trouble for those around him. He did kill my parents after all." Iruka then headed towards the door. "Thanks Mizuki for helping me through this."

"Hey, what are friends for, right? I'll tell you tomorrow if the kid's been found."

"I'd appreciate that." Iruka said before he left towards the teacher's lounge.

Just as Iruka's footsteps faded into the distance, the door reopened and Naruto came stumbling in. He looked around the class and his eyes landed on Mizuki.

"Mizuki-sensei! Do you know where Iruka-tem- I mean Iruka-sensei went?" he asked.

"Sorry Naruto, he just left a while back." Mizuki said, "What's the rush anyways?"

"I found out why I couldn't make a clone!"

"Oh? How did that happen?" Mizuki asked with fake interest.

"Someone stuck a chakra binding seal on my back. It's basically a sick version of the 'Kick me' sticky note. Anyways, I can make a bunshin now and I'll be able to pass right?"

"Whoa, wait a minute; someone stuck a chakra seal on you?" Mizuki asked.

"Yeah, but I got it off though."

"Was there anything written on it?"

"Um… yeah, actually, there was a message saying that if I wanted a real challenge I should go to training ground 2 at midnight. But that doesn't matter if I-"

"I think this does matter, Naruto. Whoever put this seal on you did it for some strange reason. They could be trying to harm you, Naruto." Mizuki got a thoughtful look in his eyes, "Naruto… how would you like to take on a mission?"

"A mission? But I'm not a genin yet."

"I'll vouch for you. But this mission will be very important to the safety of Konoha, it may be C or even B rank. Do you think you'll be up for it?"

Naruto got very excited at the prospect of doing a mission, especially such a high priority one. "I'll do it, Mizuki-sensei! Just let me get some things from home."

"No need, I've got all our supplies here." Mizuki walked over to the teacher's desk and pulled out a secret drawer. He searched around for a minute and handed Naruto a small kunai pouch, "I'll need you to act as a diversion and a runner if things get bad. You probably won't need to use those kunai but it's better to be safe than sorry."

Naruto didn't even check his new pouch and just strapped it to his leg. "What's the mission objective?" he asked.

"We're going to capture whoever put that tag on you, Naruto." Mizuki said and was also writing a note which he left on the desk, "It's about ten-thirty right now, so we have enough time to get there. The enemy may be powerful but I have confidence in our combined abilities that we can take him down. So, you ready?"

Naruto just stood and stared at Mizuki, "You're the first teacher to ever have any confidence in me; thank you, Mizuki-sensei."

"You're a good kid, Naruto. It's just a shame that Iruka doesn't see that in you." Mizuki said as he walked up to the boy, "All set then?"

"I'm ready when you are, sensei!" Naruto said as he saluted Mizuki.

"Then on to training ground 2!" Mizuki watched Naruto as he kept a few steps behind the boy, _"Only a few more hours and the fallen shall be avenged!"_

* * *

On the other side of Konoha, Sasuke, Sakura, Ino, Kiba and Shino were gathered at a small park. They all looked crestfallen as they couldn't find their friend/brother, Naruto. It was already night outside and they still hadn't found any trace of him.

"Where haven't we checked?" Ino asked.

"The only place we haven't checked is outside Konoha's walls. I don't think Naruto would want to tangle with the ANBU guards." Sasuke said.

"Damn, if only my nose wasn't blocked, I would find him easily." Kiba said while sniffling.

"Yeah, Kiba, you have a weird obsession with pissing off spice sellers." Shino said.

"How was I supposed to know he would blast me with pepper?" Kiba shouted.

Sakura then spoke up, "Guys, this isn't helping us find Naruto."

Shino then turned to Sasuke, "What about your brother, Itachi? He should be able to track down Naruto."

"He would, but he's away on a mission." Sasuke said.

"Wait!" Ino said, "What about that Hyuuga girl?"

"Someone call me?" Hinata said as she approached the park carrying a small bag of food in her arms.

"Thank Kami you're here, Hinata!" Sasuke said, "Naruto's gone missing and we can't find him."

"I know, he failed the exam somehow and ran away, I've been trying to find him to see if he's okay." Hinata said.

"You weren't planning on making a move on him were you?" Ino asked.

"I might've. Why?" Hinata said with a knowing smirk on her face. Ino then glared at her.

"Um, Hinata, Ino, we still need to find Naruto remember?" Shino said.

Hinata then looked away form Ino and gave Shino the bag she was carrying. She then put her hands in a seal, "Byakugan!" her peripheral vision then exploded into a full 360 degree radius. "Okay, follow me. We'll find him and comfort him any way we can."

"Hai." The six children then ran back into the city to continue their search.

* * *

Back at the Academy, a small silhouette of a girl made its way towards the desk at the front of the class room. She reached out and read the note that had been left there an hour ago. A small smile appeared on her face and a high chuckle was heard. Suddenly, the classroom door opened up again and Iruka stepped in.

"Mizuki I forgo-" he stared at the teacher's desk and saw Karin standing there with a note in her hands, "Karin what are you doing here? And where's Mizuki?"

"Oh, he left with Naruto to take care of some… business." Karin replied.

"They found him? Oh thank Kami!" Iruka said.

"Yeah, it's a shame you'll never get to say good-bye."

"Nani?" Iruka was confused by her words. "What do you mean I'll never get to say good bye to him?"

Karin began circling around Iruka like a predator would do to its prey, "I'm just saying that even you won't be able to recognize the brat once Mizuki finishes with him."

Iruka's mind still couldn't process what Karin was saying. "Karin you're scaring me a bit right now. Please just tell me where Naruto is."

"I don't think I will, Iruka." Karin then stood behind Iruka, "In fact I think I'll leave to take the blame."

Iruka hadn't turned around yet to face Karin, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"We're going to _kill_ him Iruka. And you will be left to take the blame." Karin then put her hands in a seal and shouted, "Onpa no jutsu!"

Iruka jumped to the side to avoid the huge blast of sound that would have shattered his eardrums. _"How the hell does she know a jounin level technique?" _Iruka ducked behind his desk and pulled out a kunai pouch. He then pulled out three kunai and threw them at Karin. She caught all three of them but didn't prepare to throw them.

"You made one critical error right there Iruka." She said.

"And what would that be?" Iruka looked around him, there were no traps and no clones anywhere, so what was she talking about?

"You left the door wide open." Karin then ran through the open door with Iruka right behind her. Once she reached the door frame, Karin threw the kunai at Iruka's legs. One stabbed his right leg and he fell over in pain.

"See ya later Iruka!" Karin then shut the sliding door. On the side of the door facing him were five explosive notes.

"No f---ing way!" The notes immediately began burning and Iruka knew he had about five seconds to escape. Thinking quickly, Iruka jumped onto a desk and gathered a lot of chakra to his good leg. With a powerful hop, Iruka went sailing towards the glass windows and right through them, not a second too soon. The explosive notes went off and completely demolished the west wing of the academy. The intense heat phased Iruka for a second causing him to lose his balance in mid air and falling on his bad leg. But the pain in his bleeding leg wasn't bothering him at the moment, "Naruto…" he then slowly picked himself up and walked towards the forest.

"If Mizuki's involved in this, then he'll be at his favourite training ground, I'm sure of it." Adding more chakra to his leg, Iruka leaped into the trees.

* * *

Hinata and her group were running through the city when they heard the explosion.

"What the hell?" Sasuke turned towards it and shouted, "The Academy!"

Everyone stopped and looked at where Sasuke was looking. Sure enough, there was a large plume of smoke that rose high into the sky. "C'mon, I'm betting Naruto had something to do with this." Shino said.

The group followed Shino to the academy to see the local firefighters attempting to put out the flames on the west side of the school. When they got there they saw Choji standing with his father.

"Choji!" Hinata called, "Do you know what happened?"

"All I know was that some low level ninja was seen running from the entrance of the school. Someone said that the one running had black hair and weird eyes."

"It's troublesome, but I think that person was Karin." A voice said. Everyone turned around to see Shikamaru rising from the shadows.

"What do you mean? Why would Karin do this?" Sakura asked.

"Does this have anything to do with what you told me and Naruto last week?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes, I told you something big was going to happen and Karin would be the cause of it. Evidently, this is just a piece of her master pla-"

"ACHOO!" the group turned suddenly to see Kiba sneeze. "Sorry, but I need to clear my nose to check something."

"What are you talking about?" Shino asked.

"Look." Kiba pointed to the ground and the kids could see that there was a small pool of blood.

Hinata activated her bloodline and searched the area. "That blood leads from our old classroom to the training grounds. Kiba, can you tell whose blood it was?"

"Yeah, just a sec." Kiba then sniffed the air above the blood and winced, "This is Iruka-sensei's blood. And Karin's scent is nearby." A smile suddenly appeared on his face, "Naruto was here as well, it seems that Iruka was heading towards him."

"We've got to follow Iruka. If Karin is behind this, she would have gone after him." Shino said. The others began moving towards the training grounds with Kiba in front. However, Shikamaru did not move.

"Oi! Shikamaru, are you coming?" Sasuke asked.

If you looked closely at his face you would have noticed a small flash of mixed emotions cross his face. "Too troublesome, count me out."

"What?" Ino shouted, "But this is _Naruto_ we're talking about!"

Choji then put his hand on Ino's shoulder, "Leave him, once he makes his choice he doesn't go back on it."

"Fine. Let's go guys." Ino muttered.

The group of seven then left and jumped into the trees, leaving Shikamaru behind.

"_(sigh) This is going to be a long night…"_ he thought as he walked away from the fire and towards his friends.

* * *

It was finally midnight. Mizuki looked around and tried to sense any chakra signatures, none were present. "You know, Naruto," Mizuki said, "This is my favourite training area, want to know why?"

"Why, Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto didn't really care, but the man respected him so it would only be courteous of him to ask.

"This is the battle ground where the Kyuubi attacked."

Now Naruto was interested, "You mean we're standing were the Kyuubi and Yondaime fought?"

"Exactly, this place right here is where the famous battle took place. However, this is also the place where the blood of many famous shinobi was spilled. They all fought hard to protect this place but they were no match for the power of the Kyuubi, even my parents were killed by it."

"I'm sorry…" Naruto said weakly and looked at the ground.

"No you're not."

"Nani?" Naruto looked up at Mizuki. The man's eyes were burning with hate and anger.

"You're not sorry, you damned piece of shit!"

"Mizuki-sensei what are yo-"

"Shut up!" Mizuki then punched Naruto in the face and sent him flying backwards.

Naruto got up shakily and saw Mizuki glaring at him, "You have killed many of our greatest shinobi in my time, including my parents. In order to avenge them, I'll kill you!" He quickly pulled out a kunai and threw it a Naruto.

Naruto stared in shock at the Mizuki, _"Why on earth does he want to hurt me?"_

He then noticed the kunai and barely dodged it, the keyword being barely. The kunai deeply slashed Naruto's right arm and blood gushed out of it.

"GAAAHHH!" Naruto screamed, Mizuki almost laughed at the boy's pain but then he spoke, "Why the hell did you do that! Look at this! There's blood everywhere! Ah, jeez, this is my favourite shirt too! Oh, you just wait until Iruka-sensei hears about this. There will be hell to pay Mizuki-sensei!"

"WHAT THE HELL?" Mizuki shouted, "You just got freakin' slashed by a poisoned kunai, doesn't that bother you at all?"

"Poisoned? Well that's all fine and dandy now isn't it! This will take even longer to heal now. I'm guessing that you're not even the real Mizuki!"

"Oh how wrong you are, I am Mizuki in the flesh."

"But the real Mizuki respected me! He saw me for who I am and not what other people saw me as."

"Well, demon-spit, I hate to break it to you but even you're precious otou-san and oka-san hold some resentment towards you. I, of course, hate you with all my living soul. Why else do you think that I dragged you out here? On this spot where you killed the Yondaime you're demon blood will join his and you will go to hell where you belong!" Mizuki said as he pulled out eight shuriken.

What the hell do you mean? I never killed the Yondaime, hell, I didn't even know who he was. Wait, is this your idea of a test, or a joke? Screw this I'm leaving." Naruto turned on the spot and started walking away muttering about his bleeding arm when he realized something, "_Wait a minute…He's gonna kill me!"_

Panic gripped him and he slowly turned to see Mizuki throw the shuriken. "Kuso!" Naruto yelled as he ducked under the hail of pointy objects.

"You really do plan to kill me!" Naruto shouted.

"I thought that you were the smartest of your class, brat." Mizuki said as he charged towards Naruto, kunai in hand. Naruto reached into his own kunai pouch but found that it was empty. _"Shit, this was a set-up from the beginning!"_

Paralyzed with fear, Naruto couldn't react fast enough to repel the chuunin. Mizuki was barely two feet in front of Naruto when the unexpected happened.

CLASH! Sparks flew as Mizuki's kunai smashed into another. The wielder of the other kunai spoke, "Mizuki, what the hell has gotten into you!"

"Iruka…" Mizuki muttered.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed, happy that his least favourite (now favourite +1) teacher saved him.

"Naruto, get out of here before she comes." Iruka said, straining against Mizuki's kunai.

"Who? Who's coming Iruka-sensei?"

"Who else but me, Naruto-kun." A female voice said from among the trees.

Naruto saw a small girl with red eyes stare down at him, "Karin!" Naruto shouted loudly.

Iruka twitched slightly, giving Mizuki an opening. He thrust his knee into Iruka's stomach and then punched him back into Naruto. Both bodies flew back and landed hard. Naruto was the first to recover, he looked up at Karin and shouted, "Karin, hurry and use a jutsu on him!"

Karin giggled and went to stand beside Mizuki, "Now why would I do that to my own partner in crime?" she asked.

Naruto stared at Karin, "Karin what do you mean by that?"

"I mean that we're in cahoots, we've been working together since the beginning."

Naruto stared angrily at Mizuki, "How dare you trick a fellow comrade to do your dirty work!"

Karin smiled mischievously, "Oh, I think I'm a little bit more than a pitiful comrade, Naruto-kun, observe…" she then put her hands in a seal and shouted, "Kai!"

A burst of smoke surrounded Karin and slowly cleared, revealing a beautiful woman with red eyes and black hair. Iruka immediately recognized this woman as… "Yuuhi Kurenai, the famed genjutsu specialist." he whispered.

"That's right, Iruka, my genjutsu-henge was so perfect that not even you saw though it." Kurenai said.

"B-but, Kurenai, you're a jounin of the leaf! You are betraying your own people."

"Heh, the people of Konoha will rejoice once they learn that I've killed the resident de-"

"DON'T even think of finishing that sentence, it is forbidden by the Hokage!" Iruka yelled.

"So? People call him a demon every day, you even do it, doesn't he Naruto-kun?" Kurenai asked.

Naruto looked up at Iruka, "Iruka-sensei, what is she talking about?"

"Nevermind them, Naruto." Iruka said, "Just get out of here quickly and warn the ANBU about these traitors. I'll hold them off." He pulled out a second kunai and stood in a prone position.

Naruto felt a twinge of respect for his sensei that he never felt before. "Are you sure, sensei?"

Still staring at the two ninjas, Iruka smiled and said, "Yes, trust me, I will never let my students get harmed in anyway."

Naruto nodded and began running away from his sensei and jumping into the trees.

Mizuki gave a nod to Kurenai and tossed her his kunai, "I'm going after the brat, make sure to clean up when you're done."

"Yes sir!" Kurenai said sarcastically.

"See ya later Iruka." Mizuki laughed and jumped into the trees.

"Wait!" Iruka tried to chase after him but soon found himself wrapped in wire. He fell down and vainly struggled to get free.

Kurenai giggled as she slowly walked up to Iruka, "It's a shame we couldn't let you join us, Iruka. We all knew that you hate the boy but judging by your actions in the classroom, I think it's safe to say that you actually care for the boy. Because of that we have judged you unworthy enough to recruit; we even think that we'll let someone else take the blame for the boy's death. Too bad, you could have lived a little bit longer, but no, you decided to resist us. Sayonara Iruka." Kurenai raised her kunai above her head and brought it down towards Iruka's heart.

With a desperate burst of strength, Iruka tensed every muscle in his body and ripped through the wire. He then rolled away and sent a kick to Kurenai's face. Seeing the threat, Kurenai jumped backwards doing a flip and landing on her feet.

"I see you still have some more fight in you. But you're not going to last long with those wounds." Kurenai said while looking at Iruka's skin.

All over his body, the wire cut so hard that it pierced his skin along his legs and all along his arms. All the cuts were bleeding freely but Iruka didn't seem to notice. "I may not last long, but at least I can last long enough to give Naruto more time."

"Oh? And how do you plan on doing that?" Kurenai asked.

Iruka merely smiled, "3…2…1…boom."

Kurenai looked at the ground between them and noticed a green tag. _"Holy crap, it's an implosion tag!" _she thought and turned to run as fast she could. She wasn't fast enough as the implosion started. The power of this one piece of paper was incredible. The implosion sucked in everything, including oxygen, in a half a mile radius and then the resulting explosion would send everything flying back with the force of a hurricane.

Luckily for both of them, Kurenai and Iruka were able to escape the implosion but the flaying debris would be a challenge to dodge. Kurenai looked behind herself and saw three fully grown trees flying straight for her. With a grace full spin, she avoided the first and second tree but the third one smacked against her ankle and shattered it.

"Shit, one broken ankle and there's still more of this stuff flying at me!" Kurenai thought. It was true, although the big stuff passed there were still smaller pieces that were flying at speeds that could rip through skin.

"I'm going to regret using this jutsu so soon." She said. She quickly flew though hand seals and shouted, "mijin ruika no jutsu!"(2)

To the normal eye, it would have seemed that Kurenai had burst into a thousand pieces. But under a microscope you would see thousands of particles and cells that were speeding through every bit of tree and grass that was flying everywhere. Finally, the cloud of cells came to rest at the origin of the explosion and began reforming. Slowly but surely, Kurenai's cells took her original form. Once she was sure she got every cell in the right place, she cancelled the jutsu and fell on the ground. Iruka, however, was no where to be seen. "That bastard is gonna pay for making me use that jutsu!" Kurenai said as she stood up and walked to where she remembered Naruto running.

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto was running as fast as he could through the forest. He was filled with joy knowing that his teacher saved his life and now he was going to return the favour.

"Just hang in there, Iru-"

BOOM!

The explosion caught Naruto's attention and he turned around to look. It was a bad idea however, because he immediately saw Mizuki running full force towards him with a fuuma shuriken in his hand.

"Kuso!" Naruto turned back and ran for all he was worth. It was not fast enough however.

"I got you now, demon!" Mizuki then threw his shuriken towards Naruto.

With no weapons to defend him and no time to dodge, Naruto quickly clapped both his hands together, catching the shuriken a split second before it pierced his forehead.

Mizuki yelled in frustration. "You just don't die do you?" he said as he launched his second shuriken. This time, Naruto was able to deflect it with his newly acquired shuriken.

"For the love of Kami, what have I ever done to you?" Naruto yelled.

"You know what you did, demon spit. Look deep inside you and you'll know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the Kyuubi demon that destroyed Konoha and left us in shambles!"

Naruto stared at Mizuki, "Sensei, last time I checked, Konoha is pretty much not destroyed. We're the biggest, most prosperous damned village there is! And the Kyuubi is dead! Dead, dead, dead. "

"It wasn't always like this, boy. Once the Kyuubi attacked, everything fell apart. Waves after waves of ninja were sent to kill it but very few survived even more were forced to quit being ninja for good! And then, to top it all off, the Kyuubi killed our Yondaime!" then Mizuki smiled slightly, "But one good thing came out of this. Although the Kyuubi couldn't be killed, our Yondaime sealed it inside something that could very easily get killed."

Naruto was starting to piece things together but he did not want to hear what was coming next.

"The Yondaime sealed it in a child! A child that could easily get slaughtered by the village, but instead was hated and shunned. Naruto, are you starting to understand why everyone hates you? It's because _you_ are the Kyuubi! You are the incarnation of the demon fox that killed my fellow comrades."

"_That's why everyone hates me! I killed their families and friends; I committed a crime that is completely unforgivable!" _Naruto's brain couldn't take it anymore, but he though of one thing, "Mizuki why did the Hokage protect me then? He thinks that I'm just a child."

"The Hokage protected you because he's senile and crazy. He thinks that you're only a container for the Kyuubi and not the real thing. He protected you thinking that you were just an innocent boy who knew no better. But he was wrong, look at your hands, Kyuubi brat! They are stained with the blood of our honorable ninja. The Hokage is just too blind to see that blood, but I see it all the time! It haunts me and until I kill you I can never rest!"

Mizuki then charged towards Naruto again this time Naruto didn't even try to move. "You're right." He said.

Mizuki immediately stopped in mid-run and stared at Naruto, "What's that?"

"I said you're right! I don't deserve to live if I killed all those people. If you could Mizuki, kill me now." Naruto then lay down on the ground and looked at the sky.

"This is too easy…" thought Mizuki, "But any chance is as good as any."

Naruto heard the slow advance of Mizuki. He closed his eyes and waited for death. However, two voices immediately broke his concentration,

"NARUTO WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"

One voice Naruto knew as Iruka's but the other was weird; it was like it was coming from inside his own mind. He felt something tug on the back of his mind and he lost all felling to his limbs. He opened his eyes to see Mizuki standing above him but it looked like he was looking out of someone else's eyes. He could see his leg twitch slightly and then it moved at lightning speed towards Mizuki's knees caps. With a sickening crunch, Mizuki's left leg bent inwards at an odd angle. Naruto watched as his hands stole Mizuki's kunai pouch and then move away from the chuunin.

Mizuki screamed in pain and he angrily tried to punch Naruto. His fist, however, connected with Iruka's chest as he took the full blow.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto watched as Mizuki again punched Iruka in the head and then kick him in the jaw before he fell to the ground.

Iruka landed heavily and he could feel his jaw was slightly fractured. His wounds from his previous fight were still bleeding freely and his vision was slowly fading. Mizuki managed to get himself back up and slowly moved towards Iruka.

"You have interfered for the last time!" he shouted before he brought his kunai down on Iruka. He closed his eyes when he felt blood fly across his face.

* * *

Kurenai finally reached Mizuki and was about to jump in when she noticed Mizuki standing with a kunai and having it impale someone. To her delight this someone had vibrant blonde hair. "Maybe the chuunin wasn't useless after all."

* * *

When Mizuki opened his eyes, he saw that he had not stabbed Iruka but Naruto had let it stick into his own shoulder.

"Don't you dare harm Iruka-sensei. Or I'll kill you!" His eyes flashed red for a moment and he threw a punch at Mizuki's chest, shattering his ribs and sending him flying backwards. He was about to continue his fight when Iruka grabbed his ankle.

"Naruto, don't kill him in cold blood. That's not very human of you." He said.

"But, Iruka I'm not human, I am the Kyuubi. I am a demon whose only purpose is to kill."

"No, you're not." Iruka said, "It's taken me a long time to understand but I realize now that you're Uzamaki Naruto, a citizen of Konoha, not a demon of hell."

Naruto calmed down considerably, his teacher, the one that put him through hell during his academy days, was finally acknowledging him. "Thank you Iruka-sensei, that means a lot."

* * *

Kurenai had felt the killing intent radiating from the boy only seconds before. But now it was all gone. All feelings of hostility disappeared when Iruka talked to the boy. "A demon would never let words like that get the way of killing things would it?"

* * *

He then moved his ankle so that Iruka let go of it. He moved towards Mizuki and knelt down in front of him. "You have been deemed a traitor to Konoha for attempted murder of a civilian and a village ninja. You will be taken before the Hokage and rightfully sentenced. Do not resist or I will be forced to kill you." Naruto had heard this speech many times from Itachi while arresting someone, he just changed the words to suit the situation better.

Mizuki could no longer move for fear of piercing his lungs with his rib bones. He accepted defeat and let unconsciousness take him. Naruto was about to pick him up when Kurenai appeared. Naruto prepared to attack but she held her hands up.

"Relax, I'm not going to attack you. I overheard your conversation with Iruka and was surprised to see that you passed up a chance to kill someone, no demon would ever do that." She said, "C'mon you take Iruka and I'll take Mizuki. We'll go to the Hokage and get this sorted out."

She was about to pick up Mizuki but a sudden rush of pain erupted from her shoulder. An unearthly voice came form her mouth, "No! Kill the boy! I command you!" Suddenly, what looked like black flames grew from her shoulder and covered her face and right side of her body.

"Time to die Naruto-kun!" she screeched.

Before she could even move, a hail of kunai and shuriken fell from the sky and a voice shouted, "_Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"_ the hail of metal then burst into flames and showered upon Kurenai.

The area around her burst into flames at each impact of the weapons. Naruto turned around and saw his friends and brother standing behind him.

"Naruto, it seems you have a habit of getting into trouble." Said Sasuke.

Naruto smiled, "Yes, but you are always around to get me out of it."

As Naruto walked towards his friends, eight kunai were thrown from the flames. "Everyone get down!" Naruto shouted.

All the children ducked or fell over while dodging the kunai. From out of the flames came a deranged looking Kurenai. One side of her hair was grey and her left hand looked like a three fingered monster's fist. "Die you bastard!" she lunged at Naruto but froze in mid-air.

"Kage mane, success." A shadow said as it slowly took the form of Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru! Why are you here?" Sakura asked.

"I've said this before, Naruto's a good ninja and it would be a shame to lose him."

"Hm, I guess everyone has a heart then." Hinata said. "Anyways, let's finish her off." She put her hands in a seal and a green yin-yang circle appeared underneath her. Shikamaru released his shadow jutsu before Hinata yelled, "Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou!" Hinata was about to perform all 64 strikes when she noticed that all of Kurenai's power was coming from a tattoo on her shoulder. Using complete accuracy, she focused all her strikes on that one area. The tattoo shattered and Kurenai returned to her natural self. She then fell on the floor unconscious.

"Okay, three people to each ninja, we'll carrying them back to the Hokage tower and end this." Naruto said.

The nine kids walked up to Mizuki, Kurenai and Iruka. However, Iruka decided to tell Naruto his news now instead of later. "Naruto, come here for a minute." Naruto walked up to Iruka who propped himself against a tree. "Now, close your eyes."

After Naruto closed his eyes Iruka began taking off his headband, he signaled the other kids to do the same. "Naruto Uzamaki, in light of your actions today, for your contribution of capturing two rouge-nin, I hereby announce that you… graduate."

Naruto opened his eyes and saw Iruka and all his friends holding out their headbands. "Congratulations, Naruto." They all said together. Tears gathered in Naruto's eyes and he hugged the nearest person to him, which turned out to be Ino.

"Thank you all!" He said.

"Group hug!" Sasuke yelled.

Instead of a nice hug, Kiba, Shino Choji and Sasuke all dog piled on top of Naruto.

"Itai! I'm still injured guys!" Naruto yelled in pain.

* * *

After a little while, Iruka, Naruto and Kurenai were in the hospital receiving medical attention. As it turned out, Mizuki and a mysterious man had encountered Kurenai and placed the tattoo on her shoulder. She was then constantly controlled by a voice that only she could hear. No one had missed seeing her anywhere because she was supposed to be on a solo mission for a year in Snow country.

Her cousins and father were killed in the Kyuubi attack and she had always hated the Kyuubi for it. She knew deep down that Naruto was the container but she always held a small amount of hate towards him. But after watching him for a whole year she came to realize that he was a very sweet boy who needed people to like him for who he was and not what he carried. The Hokage was convinced by her story, she would be punished however, nothing major, maybe juts probation. But the punishment would be determined later.

The talk with the Hokage went by very well, The Hokage had sentenced Mizuki to death but because of Naruto's kindness he was sent to prison for life instead. They had gotten very little information about who sent Mizuki on his mission except that 'he hates Konoha for rejecting him'. Apparently there had been other sightings of the tattoo on other ninjas but they were easily dispelled or destroyed. All in all though, the Hokage was impressed with the bravery that Naruto had shown and the loyalty that his eight friends displayed. He awarded each kid an envelope that had the equal amount of a B-rank mission's pay.

"Now, rest up. I'll have Iruka postpone the team selection for a day to let you all rest, you definitely deserve it." The Hokage said.

"Hai!" all the kids then left the tower and headed towards their homes.

"So, Sasuke, do you think we'll be on the same team?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke was counting his money when he responded, "Of course, they'd never split us apart! We're too much of a team to work alone anyways."

"Yeah, you're right!" Naruto said.

"Yup, I'm always right."

The two boys then reached their house and immediately Mikoto and Fugaku was asking about the boys whereabouts that night. Naruto simply held out his headband and said, "Otou-san, I have done what you told me and have become a ninja. Now I will be able to protect those I love."

Fugaku stared at the boys and then hugged them, "You boys have made me proud! Now get some rest, tomorrow we will celebrate your graduation."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Hokage tower…

The Hokage was pacing back and forth in his office. His eyes were scrunched up in concentration and he was stroking his goatee, _"It couldn't be _his _seal that they were talking about. As far as I know, he died in that fire. But if he did survive, this could cause some trouble, especially for Naruto and Sasuke."_

* * *

Hello! I hope you enjoyed the major fight scene in this chapter. Anyways the next chapter will determine the teams and missions will be handed out. And this is you Last chance to vote for pairings! The polls will close on July 1st. I will try to put the pairings in effect in chapter 10 maybe even chapter 9 if I can. Until next time, see ya!

Jutsu list:

Onpa no jutsu

Sound wave technique: creates a stream of sound that hits an enemy and basically deafens or blows up a person's eardrums. Can also shatter objects and internal organs.

Mijin ruika no jutsu

Particle acceleration technique: The user of the jutsu splits into billions of cells and can freely flow through any space as small as 0.0000001mm. Uses immense chakra control to keep all cells contained together. Should this technique go wrong, the users' cells will scatter everywhere and freely attach to whatever it touches first, thus killing the person in pretty gruesome way.

Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu

Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique, creates a large fireball to burn enemies to cinders.


End file.
